


Enemies Can't Hurt You as Deeply as Your Family

by neosaiyanangel



Series: S Plus D Equals K [1]
Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Community: Kim Possible Slash Haven, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Post-Canon, Surprises, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-13 06:33:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13564851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neosaiyanangel/pseuds/neosaiyanangel
Summary: Kim Possible's life goes for a loop when she finds out facts about her main foes that turns her relationship with them on its side. Crack concept.





	1. Awkweird Turn

_Beep beep be beep!_

The sound of the Kimmunicator rang loud and clear through the lab.

“What did I tell you about _phones_ ,” her professor warned her.

“Sorry Dr Wrigley!” Kim said apologetically. She wished she could’ve answered it. Really, she did! But she was already in trouble for bouncing out of the test the previous week. It wouldn’t do her or anyone any good if she got flunked from her class for poor attendance.

Today, they were doing a lab experiment related to blood. Really basic stuff, but one had to start somewhere in Biology 101...

Kim currently had her own blood sitting on the petri dishes they’d been given. Finally, after getting her own vials of A and B antibodies, she dropped a splash on one, then the other pool of blood in the dish.

She watched the blood, waiting for it to coagulate.

Nothing happened.

“Hm…” Strange. She called the professor over, who went through the process step-by-step, just to make sure Kim had done it right.

She had.

So that meant… Kim was type O? That couldn’t be right… She flipped back to the records her parents had given her for her genealogy paper for that same class. To her shock, her memory didn’t fail her…

It had been a family joke that her parents were ‘typed to match’...

Both being AB.

* * *

 

“Wade, I need a favor…” Kim brusquely walked across the Upperton College campus to the parking lot, a nervous edge in her voice.

“Go ahead, Kim!”

“It’s not related to a mission or anything,” she stated outright. “This would be a personal favor.”

Wade smirked, a sparkle in his eye. “Considering all you’ve done for me? No favors between us.”

Kim smiled a genuine smile, the first since she saw the results of her blood typing. “Thanks Wade. You rock!”

“Whoa now, you haven’t even asked me about what the favor is!” Wade teased. “I’m not even sure I can help you yet!”

“I’m definitely sure you can.” Kim plucked a few hairs from her head. “Do you think you could run a DNA test on this?”

“I’d prefer a cheek swab, if you don’t mind…” he answered, pushing a button. A small cotton swab popped out of the top of her watch. “Say ‘ahhhh’!”

“Ahhh-.. ACK!” Kim choked a little as the swab did its job, sampling the inside of her mouth. “A _little_ too far back…”

“Sorry about that,” Wade sheepishly replied. Typing away, he offhandedly asked, “So, what kind of DNA test are we running? Looking for abnormalities?”

“Actually, it’s more of a parental gene test…”

He stopped typing. “Huh?”

Kim sighed, afraid and wishing she didn’t have to say these words… But she did. “My parents... Might not be my parents…”

Wade winced. “Okay. So you want a DNA test ran on them to make sure?”

“And if you could run it through all known databases for DNA, that’d be spankin’!”

“All of them? Including GJ?”

Kim paused, then sighed. There was always that possibility. “Yeah, Wade. Even GJ.”

“Gotcha.” He typed a few moments, then winced. “You might wanna sit down…”

Her stomach dropped. “...I’m not their daughter, am I?”

Morosely, slowly, he answered, “...no, you’re not.”

“Great.” Kim bit her lip and fought back tears. This was _so_ not how she’d expected her day to go...

“I’ll start running the rest of the results. It might take a while…”

“That’s fine. You’re a miracle worker,” the redhead said honestly.

Wade gave the thumbs-up. “I’ve got your back.”

“Right on.” The link between them closed, perfect timing as she had just walked up to the Sloth.

Now, it was time to have a candid talk with the ‘rents.

* * *

She decided the direct approach was the best idea.

“Why didn’t you tell me that I’m adopted?” she said as soon as she walked in the door of their newly built house, not caring about who or what heard her.

Her parents paused mid-discussion on the couch, gawking. The tweebs, laying on the floor watching tv per the norm, just kind of stared, looking between their sister and their parents. 

“What?” Jim asked stupidly.

“What’s she talking about?” Tim finished the thought.

“Boys, you may want to leave the room…” her father said, eyes never leaving Kim.

“But we wanna know what-..”

“ _Boys_.” The tone brooked no room for argument. Deflating, the twins got up from where they had been laying and stomped their way up to their rooms. The door closing could’ve been heard from outside with how hard they slammed it.

Silence reigned for a full minute. Neither side seemed willing to start the discussion. Frustration built in Kim. Why were they just sitting there? Did they really have nothing to say?

Finally, her mother haltingly said, “We didn’t… Really adopt you…”

That cut her frustration off, the very idea flooring her. Thoughts rushing, she asked the first thing she thought, “You _kidnapped_ me?!”

“Ohhhh no! No no no!” her father said, standing up from the couch. He walked over to the nearby shelf and pulled off his pipe - a sign that he was stressed to the moon.

He stuffed it full of tobacco and lit it as Anne admonished, “Kimmie! I can’t believe you accused us of kidnapping you!”

Kim’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry. Just…” She walked over to the couch and sat by her mother. “I’m so confused…”

“I’m sure you are, Bubble-Butt,” her mom said, wrapping an arm around her fellow redhead and pulling her in for a hug. “We don’t have many answers, but we can tell you what we know…”

“I knew this day would come…” James sighed, blowing out a small cloud of smoke. “I was just hoping it _wouldn’t_ …”

“So…” Kim trailed off, unsure how to ask for more.

Fortunately, her mother read her mind. “It’s pretty simple, Kimmie. One night, there was a knock on our door. We answered, and there in a small bundle was you…”

“I was a doorstop baby?” Her world felt dim. An unwanted child, tossed away like that…

“I don’t think your parents didn’t want you,” Anne rushed, again reading Kim’s mind. “You were wrapped in a snuggly, if slightly dirty, blanket…”

A blanket? That was… “Do you still have the blanket?”

“ _You_ still have the blanket, Kimmie-cub,” her father said, waving his pipe at the ceiling. “It’s the one in your room, on the top shelf of your closet.”

Kim found herself rushing up the stairs to her room. She made her way to the closet. Flinging it open, she searched through the various knick-knacks for the blanket.

Her baby blanket…

Almost reverently, she pulled it down from the shelf. She’d never really bothered to look too closely at it, relegating it to a normal family heirloom status. But now…

Faded stitching, still legible even with the frayed ends, was in one corner. The name ‘Kimberly’ was there in shaky stitching, almost as if a hand unfamiliar with sewing put it there. She’d originally thought that her grandmother had done it, but now that she was looking it was an odd thought to have. Her grandma was better at sewing and stitching than this.

“See Kimmie-cub?” Her dad appeared behind her, giving her a shoulder hug. “Your parents did want you!”

“One of them, at least…” Kim wondered, which was it? Which of her biological parents had cared enough to make her a blanket like this before abandoning her?

“Don’t think like that, Bubble-Butt,” her mom said. “I’m sure they both cared.”

“Then…” Tears threatened her eyes again. “Then why did they abandon me?”

Her parents looked between each other, not saying anything. All they could really do was give her another hug.

“It doesn’t matter,” Anne murmured into Kim’s hair. “All that matters is that you’re ours, and that we love you.”

“...yeah, that’s true…” Kim gave both of her parents a one-armed hug. “I love you too.” What did it matter if they weren’t her biological parents? They were still her parents at the end of it all.

_Beep beep be beep!_

There it was. Time of judgment. Flipping the Kimmunicator on, she said, “Go Wade.”

On the screen, Wade sat, giving her a weird look. “Yeah, uh, Kim? You’ll want to sit down for this.”

Her parents gave her a strange look. Sheepishly, she admitted, “I asked Wade to run my DNA…”

Instead of being upset, they both nodded.

“Makes sense,” her dad said, puffing another cloud. He awkwardly paused and asked, “Do you want us here for you, Kimmie-cub?”

Kim considered it for a moment. Should she? Should she be selfish and have them here for her, or should she take this on herself?

“...could you please stay?” She didn’t want to be alone for this.

“Of course we can, honey,” her mom said, motioning towards the bed. The three Possibles sat together, each taking their own time to try and get comfortable.

Sighing, not wanting to put it off any longer, Kim said, “Okay Wade… What did you find?”

“Well, uh, yeah… Good news, I found your parents…” Her heart leapt in her chest. “The bad news is who they are…” Tilting his head, he muttered, “Strangely, your dad - so weird saying that - is listed in the GJ database as personnel…”

“Wade…” Kim said testily. She knew he was trying to avoid the topic. “Tell me!”

“I, ah…” He sighed, then apparently steeled himself. “Your parents are Shego and Drakken.”

“...real funny, Wade.” The redhead rolled her eyes. “But seriously, who’re my parents?”

“Drakken and Shego are.” No trace of humor in his voice. None. “They are your parents.”

 _Drakken… And Shego… Are…_ Kim felt lightheaded, blood pumping loudly in her ears.

 She barely felt the bed cushioning her fall as she passed out.

* * *

“...ie… Ki… ...mie…”

A voice was calling out to her. She couldn’t tell who it was. She didn’t really _want_ to. Staying in this nice warm dark space… It was nice and quiet and-..

“ _Kimmie_!”

She shot up, head knocking hard into whoever was yelling at her.

“Ouch!” Kim hunched back, rubbing at her head. Standing above her, her mother was doing the same.

“Kimmie-cub, you fainted…”

“...it wasn’t a dream.” Her parents shook their heads. “...so… Drakken and Shego…”

“Yeah,” her dad said, looking extremely awkward. “Drew is your, ah, dad.”

“But Shego seemed nice when she was visiting,” her mother offered.

“She’d been reverse polarized,” Kim said, exasperated. “She’s not normally like that. Normally, she’s snarky and mean and…” She tilted her head at the sudden thought. “...do you think they know who I am?”

“I don’t understand.” James puffed out another plume of smoke. “Do you mean where you ended up?”

“No, Dad. I mean, do they know _who I am_? Do they know I’m their daughter? Do they even realize…?” She thought back to all the fights, all the times the two teams had done battle, had come close to killing each other. Did they know, even then, that they were possibly committing filicide?

...no. Kim knew them well enough as people to know that they wouldn’t do that. With how dedicated Drakken is to his mother, and how offhandedly charitable Shego was to her brothers, she knew they couldn’t ever pull that off.

...so what happened? How had this even occurred? Did _they_ even know what happened? When they’d been on the Lorwardian ship, Shego had been denying her and Drakken’s relationship… Did they just… Fall apart?

There was definitely more to this.

“Sorry Mom, Dad, but I have to jet.” She kissed them both on the cheek. “It’s not world-saving, but it’s definitely _something_.”

“Gonna go have it out with the ‘rents?” her dad asked, strangely mirroring her own thoughts from earlier.

“Something like that…”

“You may want to call Ronald in for this,” her mom warned. “They may not be in a good mood when you visit.”

“And you may want to use their front door,” James wisely advised.

“Will do!” Kim almost cringed as she thought on the man with the similar name, but shook herself out of it. There were more important things to take care of.

She rushed down the steps, pulling her Kimmunicator back up. “Sorry about that, Wade…”

"It’s okay. Do you need a lift? They’re at the Caribbean lair right now.”

Kim thought about it. “...nah. I have enough gas in the Sloth to get there and back. I think this is something that I’ll want to be able to get in and out of quick, just in case.”

“Gotcha.” Wade smiled. “Well, good luck! I’ll make sure the flight plans are in place for the Sloth’s clearance.”

“Please and thank you!” Wade waved and signed out. As she went to her car, she called Ron up. “Ron? It’s Kim. I’ve got the _craziest_ thing to tell you…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's right, this is a 'Kim-as-Drakken-and-Shego's-child' fic. Bet you haven't seen one of those before.


	2. Chapter 2

“That’s really weird.”

“Yes, Ron, I know.”

“Like, wrong-sick weird.”

“ _ Yes _ , Ron,  _ I know _ .”

“It’s the weirdest thing-..”

“YES RON, I KNOW!” Kim’s temper finally broke. “You’ve been saying that,  _ on repeat _ , for the last hour!”

“Sorry KP!” Ron waved his hands in front of his face. “I just…  _ Shego and Drakken _ ?”

“I know, right?” She was still having trouble with it herself. The ‘how’s and ‘why’s were running through her head as fast as they came. It was all so…  _ Random _ . Just that morning she’d been Kim Possible, daughter of James and Anne Possible. Now? She was Kim Possible, biological daughter of Dr Drakken and Shego…

“It’s just  _ so wei _ -..”

“RON!”

“Yikes, okay, I get it!” He coughed and said, “So, ah, wanna hear about how my day was going…?”

Kim smiled, glad for something  _ normal _ to grab on to. “Yeah, I do.”

In almost a blink of an eye, they were at the island lair that Drakken and Shego called home. It was almost scary now, looking at the place, and them, with fresh eyes. A man who hated the world enough to try and take it over for his own sick purposes and a woman who was so indifferent to everything that she was okay helping him.

...did she really want to go through with this?

“Ron?” She swallowed as she landed at the base of the island, at the start of the path up to their lair. “I think I’m getting cold feet…”

“I didn’t ask you to marry me!” he suddenly shouted.

Kim stared.

“Erm, I mean, don’t?”

She rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks for the encouragement.”

“No problem-o, KP!”

Had Ron always been this annoying?

...what was  _ wrong _ with her? Ron wasn’t annoying… He’s probably just as flustered as she was.

“Well…” No reason to keep sitting there, doing nothing. “Let’s go.”

It didn’t take long to walk up the path. To her surprise, it wasn’t boobytrapped. It was just weird. Did they get visitors often enough to not warrant traps?

They stopped once they reached the door. It was a plain steel door, with a doorknob and everything. Even had a doorbell.

Kim breathed in, then out. She could do this.

Heedless of her thoughts, Ron pressed the doorbell.

A few moments passed. Then…

“Go away!” Drakken’s voice sounded from inside. “We don’t want any cookies.”

“Cookies…?” Kim tilted an eyebrow. What in the world did that mean?

“We don’t have any cookies, Drakken!” Ron shouted, banging on the door. “We wanna talk with you!”

“Who is-..” Drakken burst the door open and stared at the two teens. Frowning, his forehead sloped downwards as he said, “Oh. It’s  _ you two _ .” He snorted. “What do you want? Can’t you tell we’re busy?”

“Not really,” the blond shrugged, trying to strongarm his way past Drakken. The blue man resisted, giving Ron the stink eye.

“Who said you could come in? We aren’t even doing anything!”

“But you _just_ _said_ you were busy,” Ron pointed out. “How can you be doing nothing and be busy at the same time?”

“Good point…” Kim said, dropping into mission mode. There was definitely something going on here.

“Nnnnngh…” He grunted and grumbled for a few moments, flowers bursting from his neck. “GAH!” Peeling them off, he growled, “ _ Fine _ ! If you’re going to be  _ like that _ I  _ might as well _ let you in before you try busting the door down…” Drakken halfway turned, still blocking the door, and shouted, “SHEGO! We have visitors! Kim Possible and… Ah…” he sputtered “that one guy.”

Kim forced her way by Drakken and stomped her way into the lair.

Inside, she gaped.

Shego was swiftly and not-so-silently destroying what looked to be a table, two chairs, some romantic accompaniments, and the remains of dishes and food

“You  _ idiot _ !” Shego yelled, lighting the rest of it on fire with her powers. “Why didn’t you distract them more!?”

“ _ I’m _ the idiot? Who didn’t set everything on fire in the first place!” he shot back.

“Oh hey! Big long candles! Don’t see those much anymore!” Ron said as he skipped over and  sifted through the melted and charred remains of whatever the two villains had been doing.

“Were you two…?” Kim couldn’t get herself to say it. Somehow, it made things seem more real now than ever.

“Hmph!” Drakken crossed his arms and pouted.

“Yeah, fine, you caught us.” Shego made it out like it was something small, even though they  _ all _ knew better. “We were having dinner.”

“A romance-y dinner,” Ron corrected, sniffing at a particular pile of ash. “What? Salmon  _ without _ capers?!”

“Those things are nasty,” the green woman defended, clearly incensed.

“We didn’t come here to judge what you do, by yourselves, behind closed doors,” Kim said neutrally.

“Our relationship has certainly not progressed  _ that _ far!” Drakken butted in. “Shego has class, and that’s definitely not second-date material!”

“I didn’t mean-.. I just-.. Nnngh…” Kim growled. This was just getting worse and worse!

“Calm down, everyone, calm down,” Ron said, somehow being the voice of reason.

“ _ I’ll _ calm down when  _ they _ calm down!” Drakken, Shego, and Kim all said, pointing at each other.

“Fine. I’m calm,” Kim said, motioning with her hands for the other two to calm down. Amazingly, they complied, their stances changing subtly.

“Okay, Princess…” The redhead almost flinched at the nicknames now… Was Shego doing it on purpose? “So, what has you up in a tizzy that you had to come all the way here to bug us when we aren’t doing anything?”

“If someone needs help from us, tell them to get lost!” Drakken sneered.

“No. No, it isn’t anything like that,” Kim said, trying to keep calm. In, then out. Breathe.

“We’re on pins and needles here,” Shego deadpanned.

“The suspense is killing me,” Drakken apparently agreed.

“You two might wanna sit down,” Ron said.

“HA!” Drakken defiantly went and propped himself on the large computer terminal a few feet away. “You can’t tell me what to do!”

“Are we children now?” Kim complained, resisting the urge to facepalm at the antics.

“I’m with the doc here.” Shego shifted her weight. “I’m not moving.”

“Fine. That’s fine.” In, out. “That’s okay. I’m just here to deliver some news. Some… Maybe stressing news.”

“We’ll see about that!” Drakken said, peeved. “I don’t see why you couldn’t do this  _ over the phone _ or something…”

“Trust me, this is not a phone conversation.” Breathe. “I’m…” She swallowed, the dryness of her mouth almost hurting. “I’m your daughter. The two of you. I’m both of your daughter.”

The two stared. Turned to each other. Then began laughing.

“I’m not joking!” Kim said, her cheeks now lighting up like a Christmas tree. It was hard enough to have said it, but for them to think that it was a joke…? It made her sick to her stomach. Now self-conscious and wanting to convince them, she shouted, “Wade scanned our DNA! We. Are. A. Match.”

“I’ll let my  _ own _ computer be the judge of that!” Drakken suddenly said. He snatched a chunk of hair from both Shego and Kim with his vines as fast as he said it, so fast that the two women barely had time to react.

“Ouch!” Shego snarled, “You’d better have a  _ damn _ good reason-..”

“DNA, Shego. I need a sample of DNA to run,” Drakken defended, for some reason not ducking down and away like he normally did when he riled her up like that.

“Hmph…” Shego frowned, but said nothing, instead turning and glaring at Kim. “If this is some kind of sick joke…” she warned, flames bursting to life on one of her hands.

“Trust me, if it were I wouldn’t be here in striking range,” Kim assured her. As she was saying that, Drakken had shoved their samples into a tray on his computer and pushed several buttons. Then, with finality, he pressed one last larger one in the middle of the panel.

“Ta-da!” Drakken waved at his computer. “There! No match!”

Kim and Shego stared. “...uh, Doc?” Shego started, her eyebrows trying to hit orbit. “That says that we  _ do _ match…”

“What?!” Turning around, this time actually looking at the results, he boggled. “A match? We’re a match?!” He pushed the button again.

Match.

Again.

Match.

Again.

Match.

He pushed it several more times, each one more frantic than the last.

“This must be malfunctioning!” Press. Ding! “This can’t be right!” Press. Ding! “ _ This can’t be right _ !” Press. Ding!

“I’m a father,” he said vacantly, turning around and staring off into space. “I’m a  _ father _ . I’m  _ Kim Possible’s _ …” With that, he fell forward, hitting the ground hard.

“And I’m supposed to be your mother? Psha,  _ please _ . I would’ve been, what, 15, 16 when you were born?  _ I _ certainly don’t remember it.” Shego stopped. Blinking, she murmured, tucking a few stray hairs behind her ear, “Actually, I don’t remember  _ any _ of it…”

“What does  _ that _ mean?” Kim asked, eyeing Shego.

“That’s the thing about the hero business, Cupcake,” Shego said. “Sometimes the villains retaliate in a way that’s permanently damaging.” She seemed to coolly examine her nails, but Kim knew better; she was tense enough to play a tune on. “I, for example, have a few memory gaps.” She began ticking off with her fingers. “Can’t remember my parents, can’t remember some of my childhood, can’t remember a chunk of my teenage years.” Shrugging minutely, she noted, “The bad side of heroics.”

“Do you think Drakken…?” Ron said, his eyes bugging out as he stared at the prone form of the bad doctor.

“Did it to me?” Shego laughed. “Nooooo way. The doc was a practical  _ vegetable _ when I was attacked. His words, not mine.”

“Like, coma vegetable? Or did he turn himself into a blueberry?” Ron asked. Even with the tenseness of the sitch, Kim couldn’t keep in a chuckle. If that was how he’d turned blue… Though, to be fair to Drakken, blueberries were a fruit.

“Haha-.. Yeah, no. He was in a coma or something. Way to joke about something serious, jerkass,” Shego snarled.

Suddenly, Drakken shuddered, then began climbing to his feet. “Nnngh…” Rubbing his face, he muttered, “Shego, I had the  _ worst _ post-invention-blow-up dream…!”

“Wasn’t a dream, Doc.”

“What?” He plopped back on his butt. “What do you mean it wasn’t a dream. I dreamt that we were-..”

“Kim Possible’s parents.” Shego blew on her nails. “Yup, it’s reality.”

“Oh god…” Drakken paled, looking even more corpse-like than before. He looked like he was about to be sick. “ _ Kim Possible _ is  _ my _ …!” He apparently couldn’t even get himself to say the word.

“Daughter. Kim Possible is  _ our _ daughter,” Shego said flatly.

“How…?”

She shrugged. “Beats me.”

“Real helpful, Shego!” Drakken barked. He jumped to his feet and began to pace. “There’s got to be a reason. There’s got to be  _ some reason _ …!” He suddenly popped up. “Oh! I know! Dementor did it!”

“And what in the world makes you think that?” Shego asked.

“I… Ah…” Drakken hunched over, then began to pace again.

“I was definitely a baby,” Kim said, trying to be of  _ some _ kind of help.

“So no vat-growing…” He continued to pace. “It could be genetic zippering of some kind…”

“Who would’ve bothered with some loser college drop-out named Drew Lipsky if this was some maddie experiment?” Shego asked logically.

“I let MYSELF out, thank you very much! Anyway…” Muttering to himself, he continued his back-and-forth pace for several minutes. A couple of times he stopped and made a ‘eureka’ motion, but swiftly discarded it and continued his pace.

Finally, unable to take any more, Kim blurted, “Don’t  _ either  _ of you have  _ any _ memory from back then?”

“I certainly don’t,” Shego coolly replied.

“I don’t. Not really, anyway.” Kim and Shego both eyed him. He sighed and growled, “After I left MIST - Middleton Institute of Science and Technology - I don’t really remember anything until a year or so before I went villain.”

“...wait…” Shego just kind of… Stared. “You mean to tell me that you don’t remember  _ a third of your life _ ?”

“Yes…?” Drakken stood, staring right back. “What’s wrong? Do I have something on my teeth?”

“And you were a blueberry while that was going on?” Ron asked.

“Blueberry…?” Drakken’s eyes narrowed.

“He’s being an idiot,” Shego supplied. Kim found she could not disagree.

“Well, yes, it’s hard for him  _ not _ to be considering that’s his natural state!” the now-peeved man growled.

“Hey now, that’s going a little far!” Ron complained.

“Let’s focus,” Kim said, trying to wrangle everyone again. “Drakken, you were a vegetable during that time, right? Who took care of you?”

“Well, erm, my mother did…?” He twiddled his fingers. “She told me that I’d been accosted by some upperclassmen and that I ended up practically comatose afterwards. On my end, it was a shut door.” He motioned a door slamming shut with his hands. “One day I was quitting college, the next I was waking up 12 years later, blue and scarred.”

“Hm…” Kim thought. “Well, that’s one lead we can follow…”

“Lead?” Drakken tilted his head. “What do you mean ‘lead’?”

“She  _ means _ ,” Shego butted in, “that we can figure out what the  _ hell _ happened by going and talking with dear ol’ Mama Lipsky.”

“And  _ why _ would we be doing that?” The blue man crossed his arms and began tapping his foot. “I have better things that I can do than bother with this, and I’m sure Shego does too!”

Suddenly, seriously, Shego asked, “Would you do it for me, Doc? Please?”

Drakken looked absolutely  _ floored _ , and Kim couldn’t blame him. She didn’t even realize Shego had ‘please’ in her vocabulary without snark or sarcasm!

“I, ah, erm…” He shrugged vaguely, then seemed to come to some kind of sense as he bodily shook and stated, “Yes, Shego, I would. Will. I will.”


	3. Chapter 3

"Start from the beginning, Mother." Drakken said as he sat down in the comfiest-looking chair in the room. "What happened after I left Middleton Institute of Science and Technology?"

They had just arrived to his mother's house - a nice, average-looking house in the middle of a good neighborhood in Lowerton - and Drakken minced no words. He'd practically barged in on his mother with no hello and demanded answers. Though they were more vague than this last, better one, such as "What in the world?" and "Who could have done it?".

As the others found their seats on the spare chair and the couch, his mother said, "Why, you transferred to another school! It was…" She tilted her head as she tried to remember. Failing, she waved her hand and said, "I don't remember where, but it was somewhere not close! Leaving his _poor mother_ all on her lonesome like that…"

Drakken cringed. "Well, Mother, you know how important education was to me!"

"Unlike now," Shego said, apparently unable to keep from throwing a barb out even now.

He snorted. " _You're_ one to talk! Mocking my attempts to go back to college..."

" _I_ have a degree!" she shot back.

"Drakken! Shego! Can you two just _focus_ right now?" Ron said, unusually serious. "This is really important and stuff, right?"

The two looked between them before simultaneously flopping back in their seats. "Yeah…" they sulked together

"Good." Kim gave her boyfriend a warm smile. How he knew how to disarm those two she wasn't sure, but it was impressive nonetheless.

"Anyway, while he was there he met a girl…"

Drakken gaped. "What do you mean _I met a girl_! You've never told me anything like tha-.."

"Drewbie! You know better than to interrupt your dear old mother like that!" she tsked.

"I'm, ah, sorry, Mother," he sputtered. Shego couldn't quite hold in the snicker.

"That's better." Mama Lipsky sniffed. "He met a girl, and she was a _monster_. Told my dear lil' Drewbie not to listen to his dear mother. Even after he asked for help from me! And, eventually, he listened! Told me off and to never be in his life again! Just like that!"

Drakken looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I don't remember any of this…"

"And I prefer not to either, dear," his mother soothed. "It was just a rough patch in our lives, that's all."

"Why did I do that?" he asked, clearly completely at a loss.

"You got her pregnant," his mother supplied.

Silence.

"What," Drakken uttered.

"What?" his mother parroted. "What do you mean 'what'?"

"You mean to tell me that _I'm a father_ and _you didn't tell me_?!"

"Oh dear, no!" his mother pshawed. "If you'd actually been a father, you would've told your dear mother, of course! No, I'm willing to bet that that _tramp_ strung you along and lured you to being beaten and abused by the upperclassmen."

"After he told you to buzz off?" Shego crossed her arms. "The doc's pretty stubborn…"

"And I'm his **mother** ," she said heavily. "My baby boy wouldn't have stayed mad at me forever. He knows how important grandbabies are to me!"

"So, how did dear ol' Drewbie end up back in your life?" the green woman asked.

"Well, now, that is an unusual story…" Mama Lipsky settled a little in her chair. "You see, I got an anonymous call from someone to check this rather rough location down in lower Lowerton… Said my little boy was there and that he needed me.

"I found my baby boy in a back alley, soaked to the bone! He was completely out of it, and blue to boot…" She growled, "My boy was simply too precious to handle the rough-and-tumble college life. Those _animals_ did that to him. They even had the gall, the _gall_ to leave behind their fraternity badge! Like a calling card!" She spat. "I wasn't about to let it happen again!

"So I took him out of college and nursed him back to health. It was hard, him being a fully-grown man with the mind of a child, but it worked… Eventually…" She looked ashamed. "I didn't want my baby knowing any of this… But you pressed me, dear, so here we are…"

The silence was _so_ beyond awkward.

"So, Mama Lipsky…" It was so, _so_ weird to think that this woman was her _grandmother_ … "...Drew asked for help from you? Before all that, while he was still going to college?"

Mama Lipsky tittered, "Oh yes deary. My little Drewbie wanted some condoms and birth control pills, said his girlfriend didn't have insurance... But I just _knew_ that my baby boy should have a little baby of his own, so I gave him sugar pills and poked condoms!" She then beamed, as if it was the smartest thing in the world to have done.

"So, _Mother_ …" Drakken was rubbing his head, teeth gnashing in anger "...you _purposely sabotaged_ my attempts at birth control _so you could have grandchildren_?!"

"Well, yes!" She peered at them. "Is that so wrong?"

"YES!" sounded three very perturbed voices. Drakken, Shego, and Kim all had their arms raised in frustration. Ron, for his part, looked confused.

"Okay, should that be taken as a family thing, or just an upset thing?" he asked Rufus. Rufus shook his head and chittered. "Upset thing, gotcha."

"At least now we know why Drakken swore her out of his life," Shego murmured only loud enough for Kim to hear.

"Well congratulations!" Drakken said, hands still raised. "You're a _goddamned grandmother_!"

"Huh?" Kim had never seen the woman confused, but it looked totally weird. Her face completely scrunched up, her eyebrows so much so that they practically hit her hairline.

"Yeah… About that…" Shego sighed, clearly not wanting to admit anything. But, with Drakken's pronouncement, it was inevitable that she would find out. Waving vaguely at Kim as she thought, the green woman said, "Meet your granddaughter, Kimmie."

The gobsmacked expression looked a _lot_ more natural on her. It was as if the woman had never been confused in her life! With her laissez faire attitude, it was no wonder, really.

"My what now?" She blinked several times, looking between the two women.

"Hi…" Kim lamely waved, biting her lower lip as she suddenly felt self-conscious. "I'm Kim Possible. I, ah…" She swallowed, trying to make the foreign words feel less so. "I'm Drakken and Shego's daughter."

For a moment, quiet solid enough that one could've heard a pin drop.

"OH MY STARS I'M A GRANDPARENT!" Mama Lipsky jumped from her chair and practically tackled Kim back into hers. A million questions a minute started erupting from the woman.

"How did this happen?"

"How old are you?"

"Where have you been?"

"What kind of cookies are your favorite?"

"When do you think you'll have your own babies?"

Oh boy. This was going to be a busy evening...

* * *

After what felt like forever, Mama Lipsky finally let the four of them go… _After_ getting a 'family' picture. Neither Kim nor Shego had the energy - or care - to actually smile for it. The older woman didn't seem to mind, though, calling it a 'family trait'.

Just as she was about to close the door, a thought popped into Kim's head. "Wait. You said a fraternity badge was still on him?"

Her grandmother's expression clouded. "Yes, I did! I thought 'How _dare_ they do that to him!', but when I tried to look up what it was for, I couldn't find anything!"

"Any chance you still have it?" Shego asked. Kim side-eyed her, glad she wasn't the only one thinking what she was.

"Oh yes!" Mama Lipsky turned and trotted back into the house. "Give me a moment to find it!"

" _Trust_ me, if she _didn't_ have it I would've been shocked," Drakken deadpanned. "She still has the macaroni pictures I made from when I was in kindergarten!"

After only a minute, she returned, waving around a small patch. "Here it is! Right where I left it, in Drew's old college stuff."

"Swell," Shego said, snatching the patch from the woman. Her eyebrows shot up as she looked at it. Biting her lip, she muttered, "Things just got a _lot_ more complicated…"

"How in the world could they be more complicated than they are _now_!?" Drakken asked. Kim was wondering that herself.

"Take a look." The green woman held the patch out for the other three to see.

"Wee…" Ron squinted his eyes. "Weird letter things for a fraternity. Is it French?"

"Not 'wee', Ron. WEE." Kim's eyes narrowed. "Worldwide Evil Empire…"


	4. Chapter 4

"So, uh, what do we do now?" Ron asked as they walked to their different transports.

"We find Gemini and _make him talk_ ," Shego said, grinding one fist into her palm.

"Shego, I severely doubt that that man can remember _last week_ , let _alone_ 17 years ago," Drakken noted. "And, as you reminded me earlier, I was a nobody named Drew Lipsky. Why in the world would he have bothered with me?"

"Wait… WEE…" Kim pulled up her Kimmunicator. "Wade…"

"Yeah?" He sipped a bit of his favorite soda.

"You mentioned earlier… Drakken's listed as personnel for GJ?"

"I'm what now?" The blue man tilted his head. "I'm listed as what?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Are you sure about that, Nerdlinger?" Shego asked.

"Positive." Wade nodded. "I used a backdoor protocol to-.."

"I don't care _how_ , I care that it's true," the green woman grunted.

"Maybe that's why GJ never went after Drakken?" Ron suggested. "I mean, besides giving us a ride that one time…"

"Why would I be listed as personnel for GJ?!" Drakken asked. "I never worked for them!"

"As far as you remember," Shego pointed out. "If you worked for them at any point during your memory blank…"

"Hrrrrn…" Drakken pouted. "I would think I would've had more sense than to get involved with a sibling squabble from those two."

"It's not like that's general knowledge, Doc," the green woman said with an eyeroll. "Only the hero and villain communities know about it."

"That's… Hrm…" He closed his eyes. "In order for me to want to work for some mysterious organization, I would've had to have been pretty desperate…"

"Like having a kid on the way?" Shego supplied.

Drakken nodded. "Yeah, like having a kid…" The lightbulb lit up. "Ohhhh…"

"Yeah."

"Okay, so, we can assume GJ has records on him then," Kim said with a nod. "Any chance we could get a favor from Dr Director to take a look?"

"Not needed! It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission..." Wade typed a little more on his keyboard. "Already in. Want me to send the info to you?"

"Won't Dr Director find out about this?" Ron asked, looking around like he was being spied on.

"Relax." The computer guru chuckled. "After the scuffle with the Lorwardians, Dr Director had me personally upgrade their systems. I'm basically their sys admin."

"Nice!" Drakken said, giving the boy a thumbs-up

"Yeah, whatever. Just get us those files!" Shego snapped.

"Got 'em… Transmitting to the Kimmunicator… Now!" The Kimmunicator gave a beep of acknowledgement.

"Perfect. Thanks Wade!" Kim said with a smile.

"No problem! If you need anything else, let me know!" Wade closed the connection.

"Okay, now that we have this-.."

"Uh, KP, not to ruin the fun, but it's getting pretty late…" Ron waved his hand at the sun. Sure enough, it was flirting with the horizon.

"Okay… I guess it's time to split."

"Hey!" Drakken grumbled, "What do you mean 'it's time to split'?" Growling, he snapped, "Maybe some of us want to get this figured out sooner rather than later!"

"And some people don't like working to all hours," Shego pointed out. "Kimmie still needs to sleep and go to her classes." She turned to Kim, "Don't you, Cupcake?"

As much as Kim hated to admit it, Shego had a point. Just by being out like this she'd missed her ethics class.

"Yeah, Shego's right." She shook her head. "I need a day…"

"Well, fine then!" Drakken threw his hands up in the air. " _I'll_ sift through the data while you stupid teens do your life stuff!"

"Please and thank you!" Kim said, glad that he was willing to do that for her. For them.

"Hmph!" He crossed his arms, but reluctantly said, "You're welcome."

"Booyah!" Ron made to high-five the bad doctor, but only found air as Drakken just gave him the evil eye. "Aw man, really?"

"Yes really!" Drakken snorted. "I don't really approve of you, boy whose name I can't remember. If she really is my daughter, then I would suggest you _back off_!"

"Hey now," Kim said, stepping between the two. " _I_ get to decide who I'm with."

"But… Hnnnn… Nnngh…" Drakken grunted ineffectually before turning his back and stomping for his transport. "Shego! Let's go!"

"Make sure to forward Doc the data," Shego noted. "Hard to look through something we don't have."

"Will d-.. Gotcha."

"Later, Princess," the green woman said without the trace of sarcasm that usually accompanied that statement. She turned and followed her boss to his hovercar.

"Ready to head home, KP?" Ron asked.

_Home_ …

Kim wasn't sure what prompted it, but she found herself over by Drakken and Shego's hovercar. "Could I tag along with you?"

Drakken stared while Shego tilted an eyebrow.

"Don't you have your teeny-bopper school to go to?" Shego asked.

The more Kim thought about it, the more she wanted it. "It's no big. I'm off on missions a lot. They understand."

The older woman frowned and warned, "Your grade point'll drop."

"It's no big," Kim repeated. "There's extra credit in that class."

Shego's teeth ground. "Your education is _more important_."

Wait…

"Why not just let her do what she wants?" Drakken rolled his eyes. "Her life, her choices. If she wants to wreck it, that's on her!"

"Doc…!" Shego looked like she wanted to start pulling out her hair.

"Shego…" Kim couldn't keep the cat-like grin off her face. "Are you worried about me?"

Shego stiffened for a moment before again playing it cool. Tilting a thumb at Drakken, she said, "Well, Kimmie, it wouldn't do any good for you if you end up dropping out like Dr Loser over here."

"Hey! I can hear you!"

"I know." Shego clicked her tongue. "...you sure about this, Cupcake?"

"Positive. My parents'll understand." Kim caught a small flinch from Shego. Should she ask?

After a moment, she decided not to.

"Uh, guys, time?" Ron again pointed at the sun, which was now dipping below the horizon.

"Right." Kim handed Ron the keys to her Sloth. "Here. Make sure you keep an eye on the tweebs while I'm gone. Keep them out of trouble."

Her BFBF stared. "KP?"

"You need the Sloth to get to your own classes."

"But KP…" Ron side-eyed the two villains. "You sure you want to do this? Get stuck on the same island as them for who knows how many days?"

Kim looked over at the villainous duo who were now arguing over who would drive.

Smirking, she noted, "Somehow, I think I'll be fine."

* * *

"Here." Drakken showed Kim to a small studio apartment complete with bathroom, bed, lush brown carpeting, and a wardrobe. "This was one of our better hench quarters."

"Really?" Kim expected the henchman quarters to be a set of bunk beds at the belly of the lab or something.

"Yeah, 'really'," the blue man said, rolling his eyes. "If you need anything, you can forget about it! You had your chance when we stopped by James' place earlier."

"Don't worry. Got the full set: pajamas, clothes, toothbrush, toothpas-.."

"I get it," he said flatly. "Always prepared, like the Squirrel Scouts."

"Anyway…" Kim stood awkwardly. The flight back to the Caribbean lair had felt like it'd taken forever what with no one being willing to start a conversation. She wasn't surprised. Like how they probably felt, the revelations of the day were draining. All she wanted to do for then was curl up and sleep and sort the information out in the AM.

"What?" Drakken crossed his arms, but Kim noticed his fingers twiddling with nerves.

"Nothing." She stretched. "I'm gonna get ready for bed…"

"Good! I don't need your help anyway," Drakken sneered before shutting the door on her.

Wow. Even ruder than normal. She'd thought, hoped a little, that things would've gotten at least a _little_ more friendly now that they'd found they were family.

Guess not.

"Okay Kim…" She started giving herself a pep-talk. "Just because things have irrevocably changed doesn't mean they changed as people. They're still Drakken and Shego. Still the mean, petty people they've always been…"

Somehow, that made her feel worse.

"Ugh…" Kim tossed on pajama pants and a loose top and looked at herself in the mirror. She'd never really considered her appearance before. She'd thought it'd been pretty obvious that she looked like her mom. But, now that she was thinking about it, there were a few telltale signs that she glossed over, dismissing them as unimportant.

Green eyes. She knew some basic genetics, so she knew it wasn't impossible for her parents to have produced a green-eyed child. Unlikely? Ferociously so. Subtle little things popped out now: the dip of her nose, the rounded chin, the natural downward curve of her lips… Thank goodness she seemed to get most of her looks from her mother's side.

Speaking of…

What were Drakken and Shego doing now? Probably going through the data, seeing what they could find. ...suddenly Kim felt like a lout for skipping out like she had. She'd come with to try and figure out what was going on, dammit, and here she was planning on heading to bed!

She shook her head. No. She wasn't going to be lazy on this. She needed to get to the bottom of this mess. If that meant a sleepless night or two, so be it. It wasn't like she was a stranger to them.

Resolute, Kim slipped her shoes back on and ventured out into the lair.

It didn't take her long to find the duo. They were in the main room that they'd been in several hours ago, this time Drakken cleaning up the burnt remains of their dinner while Shego stood, talking. For some reason, Kim felt the urge to spy a little and decided to do just that. Peering out from behind the rocky edge of the hallway, she listened hard to understand what they were saying.

"..-lieve it myself, but the computer doesn't lie…." Shego said, pointing to the computer terminal. "We really are Kimmie's parents."

"I _still_ think something screwy's going on!" Drakken complained, dumping a dustpan of char into a garbage. His plants were also helping, gathering the larger pieces and setting them by the front door.

"Of _course_ something screwy is going on, Doc!" Shego shook her head. " _What_ kind of screwy I have no idea… But…" She paused, biting her lip. "...it _is_ a pretty big coincidence that we both don't remember the same period of our lives."

"You think?" Drakken said with some hostility.

"Geez, Doctor D, what crawled up _your_ ass and died?!" Shego growled.

Drakken tossed down the broom and dustpan and snarled, "Gee, I don't know. Maybe it's the fact that my _entire life_ has been some kind of, of _sick joke_ to whatever deity there is?" He stomped over to her. "Do you have any idea what it feels like to know that you've been trying to kill _your own daughter_ for _years_ while your mother knew most of the truth the _entire time_ and said _nothing_?!"

"Doy! What, you think you're a one-man breeding machine or something?" Shego said, voice becoming heated as well. "I might've been a teen mom!" She paused at that and, smirking, she noted, "Which means you robbed the cradle _big time_ …"

"What the-..?! What do you mean by _that_?" Drakken asked with an edge in his tone.

"Think about it. How old would we have been when we would've had Kimmie? She's 17 right now…"

"Nnnngh…" Drakken paused, thinking. "I suppose I would've been… 24?"

"Ha! Now I know how old you are," Shego said like it was something she'd been working to wheedle out of him for a while.

"Nnnnnnngh… _Shego_ …" It was clearly irking him, but the only words he could come up with were grunts and her name.

"I'm kidding, Doctor D."

"Not the time to tease me, Shego," he said with some finality, waving a finger in her face.

Strangely, Shego seemed to back down, stopping his finger with a handhold. "Okay, Doc, I get it…" She grabbed his hand fully. "I'm just…" Sighing, she looked away.

"I know," he uttered in a low, tired voice. "So, I would've been 24…"

"And I would've been 16. I'll be gracious and say that we ended up having her when I was a late 16, so you would've gotten me preggers earlier, maybe around my birthday?"

Drakken's face heated up. "I, erm, nnngh…" Sputtering, he said, "I wouldn't do tha-.. I mean, I don't _think_ I would've done _that_ with someone as young as-.."

"Genetics don't lie," Shego said, placing her arms around his neck. "Looks like we got awfully busy back then…" She shrugged, but there was a hint of something Kim couldn't quite place in her tone. "Considering how hard it is for me to… Well, you know…"

"Shego…" Drakken placed his hands on her hips. He gave her a soft kiss then said, "No matter how this turns out…" He hugged her.

"I know, Doc…" She sighed and buried her head in his hair.

Kim suddenly felt ashamed. She was witnessing something she really, really shouldn't be. This was _their_ home, after all, and she was violating sacred hospitality. The second she realized they weren't looking through the GJ documents she should've turned right back around and marched back to her room.

She snuck backwards and down the hall, intent on letting the two have their moment.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning saw a very awkward breakfast.

Their kitchen was actually pretty normal, if a little too mad science-y. A sterile-looking fridge with components and accessories that Kim didn't recognize sat in one corner of the room, while a stainless steel something stove - she couldn't figure out if it was convection or something else from the design - sat nestled in the middle of a generous counter space. The counters were made of either marble or quartz. An island sat in the middle of the room, where a smorgasbord of food sat for the three to partake of. To complete the look, a nice oak table - looked to be almost a family heirloom - sat with solid oak seats and placements for three.

Drakken and Shego, for their parts, were dressed in their usual outfits. The redhead would've bet that if she hadn't been there they would've been in pajamas of their own.

Kim looked at the eggs, bacon, pancakes, French toast, sausage, grits, a small collection of fruit, and, oddly, some steak and felt a twinge of guilt. Did they get all this food for her? "This is… A lot."

"I didn't know what you'd like, so I made a bit of everything," Drakken said with a shrug.

"You cooked all of this?" Kim asked, boggling. She'd expected it to be a team effort or take-out of some sort, not a one-man army.

"I don't joke around with my breakfast," Drakken said snippily. "It's the most important meal in my opinion! Gets you ready for the day."

"Yeah, Doc may be a disaster in the lab, but he's a wizard in the kitchen," Shego noted, filling her plate with a selection of steak, pancakes, and eggs. To Kim's consternation, she took all but a small pile of the eggs and all of the steak.

"Baking is science for hungry people," he nodded, ignoring Shego's barb. "So it's not a stretch for me to know what I'm doing…" Twiddling his fingers, he asked, "So, ah, food…"

"Right…" Kim grabbed one of the plates from the table and filled it up. She took most of the fruit, some grits, and a pancake.

"No protein?" Drakken asked, surprised and, strangely, a little annoyed. "Protein in the morning really helps with energy."

"I don't like to eat bacon or sausage," she said. "Ron can't have them."

"Hmph!" He crossed his arms. "Your health is more important than some, some buffoon!"

"Are you worried about me?" Kim asked stupidly, the sudden idea and Drakken seemingly remembering Ron's name shocking her slightly.

"What do you-.. I mean, what does it matter if I am?!" he snarled, probably angrier than he meant to be.

"Lay off the doc, Kimmie," Shego said after she swallowed a mouthful of eggs. "He's just making sure his lil' princess is taken care of."

"Like you're one to talk!" Drakken shouted around Kim. "Mothering her yesterday about her classes…"

"Like I said, education is important," the green woman said with a careless shrug, filling her fork with more steak.

"Whatever…" he pouted, filling his plate with French toast, grits, and some bacon.

The next few minutes were filled with silence save for the sounds of cutlery on dishes. Kim considered asking for milk, but felt awkward enough as it was. She was _eating breakfast_ , with _Drakken and Shego_ , in their _kitchen_ , after having spent the night in one of their spare bedrooms.

So weird.

"So, uh…" Kim swallowed the last bit of her fruit. She definitely did not see anything that happened last night. Nope, not a thing. "...how far did you get with the GJ data?"

Drakken perked up instantly. "Glad you asked!" He suddenly grabbed her dish and made for the sink.

"Hey! I wasn't done!" Kim complained.

"Too bad! Clear plate, clearly done," Drakken stated as he washed the plate.

The redhead growled. 'Clearly' her rear…

"Anyway, the GJ data…" he turned once he finished washing up. "I spent the night combing through the mix-and-match information that your tech guru gave me. It was in its raw form. Trust me…" Drakken shook his head, amusement laced in his voice. "Even if WEE hacked their systems, they would be hard pressed to find anything useful."

"Because it's layered in algorithms?" Kim asked.

"HA! No!" Drakken motioned for the two of them to follow him to the room with his computer. Shego and Kim shared a look, the green woman shrugging and getting up to follow the doctor. Kim tarried behind for a moment, debating on getting dressed, before deciding to just deal and trailing behind.

"What they would find when they tried would be gibberish for the most part!" Drakken pulled up some documents, all of them unrelated to each other. "Nothing is intelligently put together! Nothing! It's like some noobie computer type tried, and failed, to operate a basic computer when putting their archives together."

"That's…" Kim thought back to some of the silly things she'd witnessed from GJ. Cringing, she decided not to say anything.

"Stupid?" Shego supplied for her. "I would say that's stupid. How they manage to keep the place operational, let _alone_ find criminals, is beyond me..."

"Luckily, I am a genius!" Drakken typed away for a few moments. "I put together that my personnel files were partly shoved into a 'Project Phoenix' and partly into their food menu section… Why the food, I don't know. BUT!" He tikka tapped for a second. "I did find out a few things…"

"First of all, I worked on this 'Project Phoenix' for about a year or so before I was kidnapped by WEE."

"Really? You, kidnapped by WEE?" Shego nearly laughed. "Why in the world would they bother with that?"

"Apparently they were after some other project, not realizing that I had nothing to do with it if the GJ intel is to be believed," Drakken supplied humorlessly. "Second, it lists my family. It includes my _wife_ and our _daughter_." He pulled up more files, this time a couple of biographies which listed his wife as 'Sheila Lipsky' and the other as 'Kimberly Lipsky'.

"Wife?" Shego said it flatly, staring at the name. "Your _wife_?! Why would I marry-..?!"

"I don't know, Shego!" Drakken said, exasperated. "You're saying it like it would actually note that!"

"Was I even old enough to marry you?"

" _I don't know_! Maybe you got permission from your brothers or whatever legal guardian you had?"

"Yeah, and Hego _never mentioned it_ since then? No way!" Shego barked a laugh. "Nah, I know I must've kept my trap shut and away from them while I was in school… It was all Hego could talk about for a while after I was attacked. 'Oh Shego, this is what happens when you leave and go off on your own'. You thought he was preachy about me leaving Team Go? College was _ten times worse_! Anyway..." She looked at her nails. "I'm willing to bet that I must've lied or something..."

"Anyway, Shego," Drakken said, trying to get them back on track, "apparently we're married, and the two of you are noted as 'MIA' in their official documents." He typed a few more times. "I managed to find our marriage certificate." He tilted his eyebrow at her. "Did you know you got your degree from Lowerton U? Because we got married there."

"Lowerton?" Shego shrugged. "Eh, I would've gone to Jupiter if it meant that I wouldn't have to go to school near my brothers."

"But… Lowerton?" Drakken scratched his head. "Why _there_?"

"You're saying that like I remember," the green woman said with a shrug. "All I know is that I got through school long enough to get an bachelor's in child development." She paused. "...actually, if they have a decent program for rushing a degree I probably took it."

"I would've probably taken it too; the delay from the MIST mess really would've ruined my timeline," Drakken noted. "Even with as small as Lowerton U is, it does have a fast track system in place if you have the willpower for it…"

"So we have that mystery solved, at least, for how in the world we would've met…" Shego crossed her arms. "What else does it say?"

"Erm, not too much else…" He typed away, pulling up a few more records. "I got paid a decent salary, had decent benefits for someone without a degree, made good progress on the project whatever-it-was-for - it was a failure after I was kidnapped, by the way, which just shows my genius! An entire project fell apart without me!" Drakken cackled.

"Yeah, yeah… And?" Shego rolled her hand in an attempt to get him to continue.

"Right! Uhm…" He pointed to a certain set of words which he zoomed in on. "It mentions that WEE had me for a few weeks, and that my family vanished shortly after I was taken…"

"Great." The tone was flat. "And?"

"They mention, erm, some of the, uhm, torture equipment that they found in where they assume I was kept…"

"Torture equipment?" The very idea made Kim's stomach queasy. She dealt with supervillains and regular villains on a normal basis, but torture? That was just plain criminal…

"Yes…" The idea seemed to squick him out too. Though, considering his scar and the blue… It turned what used to be amusing character quirks into something far more sinister. Kim didn't like it. At all. "Chemicals, racks, shocking equipment - equipment to shock with, not that it's shocking, a brain-tap machine, lasers, ta-.."

"Wait," Shego cut him off. "A brain-tap machine?"

"Yes…?" Drakken stopped listing the various implements. "What about it?"

"Does it say if it's anything like the one you had?" Kim asked, catching on to what Shego was thinking. If it was like the one Drakken had, then maybe…

"Hrnnn…" Drakken grunted and read one of the documents. "It looks like it's an older model - no surprise considering how long ago it was - that caused far more memory issues with use." He shrugged. "Besides that, it doesn't really list anything beyond the disposition."

"What did they do with it?" Shego asked intensely.

"Well, they put it in their evidence locker of course!"

Kim and Shego looked at each other.

"I think we need to go find it," Kim said.

"Why?" Drakken gawked. "It's locked up in the GJ vault! I don't think any favor in the _world_ would get Dr Director to let _the three of us_ look at it… Maybe if it was just _Kimberly_... But... She wouldn't really know what to _do_..."

"Then we'll just have to sneak in," Shego said simply.

"The three of us? Sneak in to Global Justice?" He played with his fingers and grunted a little bit. A ring of petals burst from his neck. "ACK!"

"It's no big," Kim said even with a knot in her stomach. Sneaking into GJ… But… She knew that Drakken was right. Dr Director would never let two known criminals anywhere near the doomsday devices that were probably in the lock-up. If they went about it the right way, no one would even know they were there.

"I'm not a sneaky type, if you haven't noticed!" Drakken noted snippily.

"Golly gee whiz, I actually didn't," Shego deadpanned.

Kim shook her head. Would these two ever stop their back-and-forth?

"Don't worry, Drakken," the redhead said, flexing an arm. "With me and Shego teaming up? This sitch'll be no problem."

* * *

"Okay Wade, you got us covered?"

The three of them were waiting on Wade's signal to go. They were in an alley, where a GJ chute which led straight down to the underground warehouse. This was one of the few entrances to it, likely to keep it isolated from their network in case it was compromised.

Her tech guru friend nodded. "I've got the cameras on loop, and most of the sensors deactivated. All you have to worry about is the pressure sensors in the ducts. Don't put too much weight on anything or else you'll trigger them."

"Thanks Wade! You rock!" Kim shut her Kimmunicator down and looked over at Shego. "You ready for this?"

" _Please,_ Cupcake. I do this sort of thing as a _hobby_ ," Shego said, hand flapping.

"This is _demeaning_ ," Drakken complained from over Shego's shoulder where he was being fireman carried.

"Hey, _you're_ the one afraid you'll mess up and trigger something," Kim said unapologetically.

"Hmph!" He crossed his arms and wordlessly grumbled.

"Ready?" Kim said, pulling out her hairdryer hookshot. She aimed above the duct that connected to the underground base and let loose. As expected, it perfectly arched over the lightpost above and down through the duct without touching the sides. Kim tied the hairdryer end off on a nearby dumpster.

"Impressive," Shego said, eyebrow raised.

"Thanks!" Kim smiled at the compliment. It was actually pretty nice getting one from the normally mean-spirited woman.

"Hold on, Doc," the green woman instructed. "Keep a tight grip on me, and don't let go."

"Okay, Shego."

"Let's go!"

Down the chute they went.


	6. Chapter 6

It didn’t take them long to reach the bottom, to Kim’s surprise. If she had to estimate, it was a mere 5 stories below street level. Not as secure as she’d expected…

The tube opened up into a wide, open warehouse, scaffolding full of various machinery protected only with chains. It was easy enough to jump through the hole at the bottom of the tube without touching the bottom. Child’s play, really. Shego managed the same, even with Drakken on her back.

“Ouch!” Drakken yelped as Shego dumped him on the floor. Rubbing his bottom, he glared at her. “Thanks for the soft landing, Shego!”

“No problem, Doctor D,” she replied, a smirk on her lips.

“Nnnnngh…”

“Can we please focus?” Kim looked around the large warehouse. “We need to find that brain-tap machine. It’s supposed to be in Aisle J, booth 83...” She pointed at the sign above them. “At least we’ve lucked out. We’re in Aisle J right now!”

“Look at Miss Exposition,” Shego snarked. “Who would’ve thought that Kimmie doubled as a guide?”

Kim’s cheeks reddened, but she said nothing. What did she care if Shego was teasing her? At least they weren’t fighting…

“This is booth 47…” Drakken pointed, then directed their attention to the next booth. “And that’s 45… So…” He waved vaguely in the other direction. “We want to go  _ this _ way…”

“And Captain Obvious! Aren’t we just seeing the celebrities today?” Shego laughed.

“Cram it, Shego!” he grunted, stomping his way down the aisle.

“What’s wrong, Doctor D?” the green woman said with some mirth, catching up to him and tracing a finger up his arm.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the  _ constant picking _ that you can’t seem to control?” he grumbled back. “You  _ are _ mocking your husband  _ and _ daughter, after all!”

“Hmph.” Shego crossed her arms as they walked. “I’m just trying to find  _ something _ amusing in all this is all…”

“It’s not very funny, Shego,” Kim admonished.

“ _ I _ think it is,” the older woman countered.

“There!” Drakken skipped ahead, eyes focused on one specific booth. “There it is!”

Luckily for them, it was on the bottom row of the scaffolding. The brain-tap machine was a rusty red color, with actual rust tinging the edges of the machine. A large plunger-like proboscis stuck out of the side, with a rather crappy rickety-looking chair sitting under it. A large panel with a variety of buttons stood, as did a large old-school viewing screen placed in the center of the machine.

“So this is a brain-tap machine…” Kim said, taking it all in.

“Let’s see if it still works,” Drakken said, rubbing his hands together before pressing some buttons.

“Yeah, like it’s actually gonna have a charge still,” Shego snarked. “While you’re at it, why don’t you find a plug-in to put it i-..”

The screen burst to life.

“...huh.”

“Can you get it working?” Kim asked. She knew there was a difference between ‘on’ and ‘working’, after all.

“Hrm…” Drakken pressed a few more buttons. “I think so… But…” he knocked on a rusty corner, which practically vaporized at his touch. “Not for too long. The heat from the energy source’ll fry this thing before too long…”

“Then we better get this figured out,” Shego said with a frown. “Have at it, genius.”

“...I can’t tell if you’re mocking me or not,” the blue man said, taking a moment to give her a small glare.

“Just  _ do  _ it!”

“Alright, fine!” He paused. “...what are we doing again? I don’t think anyone actually told me…”

“We’re looking at the memories to see if there’s any clues for what happened,” Kim said with as much patience as she could manage. Talk about being dense…!

“Ah! Right! Okay!” Drakken pushed a few buttons. “This should pull up the most recent memories that were extracted…”

On the screen appeared two middle-aged people. One, a woman with dark eyes and jet-black hair, had her hair in a tight ponytail, while she was in a knee-length poodle skirt with a simple blouse. The other, a redheaded man in a pair of worn jeans and a work shirt, was crouching down, arms held out and smile wide towards the person whose memory it was.

“Who are  _ they _ ?” Drakken asked, eyebrow tilting in confusion as the person they were seeing through ran into the waiting arms.

“...those are my parents,” Shego said vaguely. Then, angrily, “ _ Those are my parents _ !”

“ _ Really _ ?” Kim looked at the screen. Now that Shego had pointed it out, she could tell there was some relation between her and the two displayed. The similarities were too much to be coincidence.

“What in the…” Drakken scratched his head. “Why does it have  _ your _ memories if this was supposed to be used to torture  _ me _ ?”

“I don’t know!” Shego grunted, watching the scene play out with a sneer on her face. “But it won’t have them for long…”

“Huh?” Drakken and Kim both turned towards Shego.

“Doc.” Shego was serious. Dead serious. “If this  _ thing _ has my memories…” She growled. “I want them back. I want my memories  _ back _ . They’re  _ my _ memories, and  _ I’ll _ be the one to decide if I want to keep them or not!”

“But, but Shego…” Drakken twiddled his fingers in distress. “It’s not made to put memories back!”

“ _ Make it _ !”

Drakken gulped. “If I do this wrong, it’ll eat  _ more _ of your memories! Or worse!”

“Then don’t screw up,” she replied with a careless shrug. She sat down on the rickety seat and hooked her head up to the suction cup-looking helmet. Sighing, she closed her eyes. “Ready when you are, Doctor D…”

“I, erm, hnnn…” The blue man took several deep breaths, then got to work. Connecting, disconnecting, cutting, fusing… Belatedly, Kim realized that under his lab coat was a lot, a  _ lot _ of tools. How did she not notice before? “There!” Drakken finished connecting one last cable and, closing his eyes, pressed a specific button on the console.

The machine burst to life. Shego snorted, then she gasped. Convulsions rocked her as the machine sputtered once, twice.

Then, silence and smoke.

“SHEGO!” Drakken bustled over and disconnected her from the machine. He laid her on the ground and shook her. “Shego, Shego, please be okay,  _ please _ …!”

“Mmph…” Shego twitched, then jumped. She rolled into a combat pose, hands alight, ready to strike out at whoever got in range. Panting as if she had just ran a mile, she looked around with wild, unfocused eyes.

“Shego! It’s me! Doctor D!” Drakken said, waving his arms in front of him defensively. “You know, the blue idiot that employs you? Can never do anything right? Gets ‘wrecked’ by your snappy insincere comments?”

“Doc…?” Her eyes focused on Drakken. Then, eyes glossing over with tears, she murmured, “... _ Drew _ …!” Uncharacteristically, Shego jumped up, flames fading, and practically tackle-hugged the blue man. “God, Drew, I…!”

“Erm, Shego?” He gave a nervous laugh. “You’re kind of scaring me here… You  _ are _ okay, right?”

She paused in her attempt to smother herself in his shoulder. “That’s right… You…” She backed off. “Just ‘cause I remember doesn’t mean you do, right?”

“Well, no…” Drakken stood there, wary. “Did I do something wrong?”

Her face twisted, anguished. “No, Doc…” She schooled her emotions now, reassuming her normal cool facade. “ _ You _ didn’t do anything…”

He let out a breath he’d apparently been holding. “Good! Now then…” He eyed her. “What did you want to do now?”

“Right now,  _ I _ want to tear the ‘nads right off of Gemini… But…” Shego looked at him. “First, I want to remind you… Try to get  _ you _ to remember…”

“If that’s even possible,” Kim butted in. Shego looked at the teen like she’d grown extra heads. Explaining, she elaborated, “I mean, the machine looks like it can’t take anything else…” Waving at it, she was certain she was right. The control panel was half-melted, the screen now a warped mess of wires and plastic. If Drakken could even get it working, it would’ve been a wonder to even figure out which memories were his.

“ _ Kimmie _ …” No malice in her tone. Just regret. Soooo much regret. “I…”

“It’s okay… We can talk later once we get out of here, okay Shego?” The green woman flinched when she heard her name, but faintly nodded. “You two ready?” Drakken shrugged, while Shego nodded, this time more assured. “Okay. Let’s go…” Shego gave one last look at the now-destroyed brain-tap machine before shuddering and following behind Kim.

* * *

“So then…” Kim and Drakken both sat down on the couch in the Caribbean lair, staring at Shego. Drakken ventured, “Do you, ah, happen to remember any of what happened…?

The ride back had been… Nerve-wracking. Shego hadn’t been acting like herself at all, her face awash with nostalgia the entire way there, as if she was lost in the newly-found memories.

“Oh, Doc…” Shego shook her head. “I remember most of it. It’s almost  _ crazy _ , just how much…”

“Well, I guess start from the top?” Drakken shrugged. “When in the world did we even  _ meet _ ?”

“Ah, the great mystery…” Shego let out a dry, unamused chuckle. “It went something like this…”


	7. Chapter 7

_Shego sighed as she walked into her first class of the semester. Chemistry 105, the advanced basic course for fast tracking degrees that counted as two gen ed courses. It wasn’t as intimidating as she’d expected. Getting her GED at 14 after getting ‘special permissions’ - pulling a few government strings and all that bureaucratic fun - and hooking herself up with college early was probably one of the smarter ideas she’d ever had. No reason to waste her time on high school when she could easily get out of it faster!_

_She looked around the room, scouting out potential lab partners that she could hook up with for an easier A. In the corner she spotted a dorky-looking older man, maybe mid-20s if she wasn’t mistaken. Then again, there was something a little weird about him. He had an air of a younger, more wily man. So he might just look old for his age, just like she did._

_Whatever. All that mattered was that he looked like he had half a clue about what he was doing._

_“Heya,” she said, hopping onto the bar stool next to him._

_“Hmph!” He gave her an evil eye. “What makes you think you can sit there? Maybe I’m saving the seat for someone!”_

_Shego made a show of looking around. “Where is this nebulous ‘someone’?”_

_The man cringed. “I said ‘maybe’!”_

_Oh man. She could already tell this guy was gonna be a hoot._

_Cutting to the chase, she said, “We’re gonna be lab partners.”_

_He did a double-take, like the idea was a foreign concept. “Us?_ Partners _?”_

_“Yeah…?” What was so weird about that?_

_“You_ willingly _want to be_ my _partner?”_

_“Yes.”_ Now _she got it. Man, this guy must be a grade-A loser if he can’t even get a lab partner in a college class…_

_“So, what do I call you? Miss Priss?” he asked, watching her warily._

_Shego snorted. “My name’s Shego.”_

_“Shego? That’s, erm,_ unusual _…”_

_“So what?” She smacked his arm._

_“Ouch!” He glared. “That certainly doesn’t endear you to me, you know! I don’t_ have _to be your lab partner!”_

_“You’ll give up the chance to have a hot woman like me as your lab partner for an entire semester?” Shego teased._

_He flushed and sputtered for a minute, trying to form words and failing miserably._

_Chuckling, she decided to let him off the hook… For now. “What’s your name? Captain Loser?”_

_“Nnnnngh…” He grit his teeth, but ground out, “My_ name _is_ Drew _, thank you very much!”_

_Drew, huh? Well, there were worse names one could have._

_“Nice to meet you, Drew…”_

_This semester was gonna be a_ lot _of fun…_

* * *

_“And_ THAT _,” Drew dusted his hands off and flourished their project to the professor, “is how you can make gold from lead!”_

_Their professor coughed. “You_ do _remember that the project was to titrate enough sodium hydroxide to neutralize the sodium nitrate, correct?”_

_Shego rolled her eyes. Once again, Drew got caught up in his experimenting to remember the basics of their class. “Consider this another extra-credit project, prof. The_ actual _project is over here…” She waved her hand vaguely at the basic, rather warm beaker that was seated next to her._

_Testing it with a pH strip, the professor nodded. “Good, good, glad you got it…” He eyed Drew’s massive project and sighed. “I’ll double-check your results, but if you managed it I’m willing to give some extra credit for the work…_ Again _…”_

_Shego smirked. Thanks to the wildly creative coursework her partner kept coming up with, her grade in the class was a whopping 115%. Not too bad of a semester if she said so herself._

_This was their last project. They’d spent the semester working together, her mostly being the assistant that was snarking at him and keeping him on track while he did most of the work. It was a strange dynamic, one that she was going to be sad to see go._

_...she didn’t_ have _to see it go… She was certain that he got up to the same craziness outside of the lab… And it wasn’t like she’d built many friendships while there. The_ second _she mentioned her age, most people dropped her like a hot brick. Her odd complexion didn’t really help either._

_But this guy, he_ got _her. Their back-and-forth was some of the most fun she’d had in_ years _, not since before her parents died._

_No, she was_ not _about to give this up._

_“Hey, Drew?”_

_“Hm?” He looked up from his notebook where he was scribbling in his chicken scratch writing whatever it was that he was planning next. “Yes, Shego? What is it?”_

_“Did you want to…” she almost cringed at the fact that she was actually asking him this._

_“To…?” The confusion was plastered on his face._

_“...hang out? After class?”_

_He stared._

_“Like, get pizza and shoot the breeze?” Rushing, she corrected, “Not a date, though.”_

_Suddenly he let out a breath. “Oh, thank goodness! For a second you had me scared!” Drew laughed nervously and squirmed. “Okay, erm, I guess.” He hastily noted, “But_ you’re _paying!”_

* * *

_“...so the derivative of a square root of x…”_

_Drew was trying to explain the math problems that he was working through again. Shego didn’t understand_ any _of it. Related rates, derivatives, differentiation… All Greek to her!_

_Maybe he really_ was _some kind of genius. Math and chemistry one, maybe. His English sucked, though, which was how they ended up with their weird study buddy system. She helped with his English class, he helped with her math._

_“Okay, Drew, I’m not getting it.” She shot a breath out, blowing a piece of hair out of her face._

_“What’s not to get?” he asked like it was obvious. “All you have to do is take the inverse of x-..”_

_“I. Don’t. Get. It,” Shego growled._

_Drew cringed away. “Okay, okay! I get it! Breaktime!”_

_“It’s a_ damn _good thing I don’t need to take more than this class for my degree…” Shego grumbled._

_“Oh?” Drew eyed her. “Y’know, I never caught what you’re studying…”_

_“Child psychology,” she said automatically. “I wanna be a child psychologist.”_

_“Huh.” Her partner nodded. He answered the unasked question, “I’m planning on getting a PhD in mechanical engineering.”_

_“Naturally,” Shego snarked. Drew sputtered a little, but said nothing, instead taking a nibble of the ramen that he’d made._

_They were currently studying in his crappy one-person studio apartment. It was barely the size of the closet she had at Go tower, with the bathroom communal and the bed taking up a good third of the room. He’d set up a plug-in hot plate in one corner where he cooked his ramen and macaroni, and had arranged another corner to be Shego’s own personal hang-out space._

_Idly, Shego thought back on the last year. They’d hung out a lot. It had been probably the best year of her life, really. Drew was her best friend. No matter how snarky or severe she got, he hung around, sometimes even giving as good as he got. Even better, it wasn’t purely from desperation from him. She knew if he’d wanted he’d just kick her out of his life._

_She wondered…_

_“Hey, Drew?” She scooted over to him until they were knocking knees._

_He looked up, slightly startled. “What is it She-.. Mmph?” His question was hushed by her lips on his, and her hand grabbing the one he’d been holding his pencil in. It took a moment, but eventually he kissed her back._

_It felt like minutes, but it was a few seconds later when they broke the liplock. As far as first kisses went, Shego was pretty sure it wasn’t half-bad._

_“Sh-.. Shego…” Drew turned beet red. “I, erm, uhm… I just, ahm…”_

_“Aww, what’s wrong, Drewbie?” She gave what she knew was a cat-like grin. “Cat got your tongue?”_

That _got him to stop sputtering. “Shego! I can’t believe you just-.. What are you_ thinking _, doing that to me…!”_

_“Did you not like it?” Shego tried to keep it cool, but she couldn’t hide the hurt in the words._

_“It’s… It’s not_ that _… Just…” He began playing with his hands, a hard feat that he somehow managed even with her holding one of his hands. “I mean, are you_ sure _about…?”_

_She thought for a second, understanding just what he meant. “...yeah, Doc, I’m sure.” She went in for another kiss._

_This one actually did last for a few minutes._

* * *

_It was Shego’s birthday today. Turning 15 wasn’t that big of a deal, not to her at least. Hego had wanted to come to the Lowerton campus to celebrate, but Shego had countered that they couldn’t leave Go City unprotected for that long. So, instead, her brothers had sent her flowers. Not too bad of a present, and not too bad of a cover._

_Drew knew it was her birthday, but not how old she_ actually _was. He could be pretty smart when he put his mind to it, and she’d apparently left enough clues for even him to pick up on it. He’d insinuated that he was going to get her a present that he was pretty sure she’d like, but what it was she couldn’t guess._

_Today, they were hanging out in her own apartment. Hers was a good deal bigger than his, with separate rooms and enough room for a small couch and kitchenette. He’d grumbled about how her financial aid must be through the roof but didn’t say much beyond that._

_He was late in showing up, but when he presented her with a poorly-wrapped present, she found she couldn’t be_ too _angry with him._

_“What’d you manage to spring for? A roll of toilet paper?” she teased, looking the present over. It was a cardboard box that rattled when she shook it. The sound of liquid splashing made her pause. Did he get her soda or something?_

_“Go ahead and open it!” he said, practically bouncing on the spot. She shrugged and tore the paper off._

_“Surprise!” Drew looked so excited. She, on the other hand, wasn’t sure how to react._

_Beer. He’d gotten her beer._

_“Shego?” He paused, twiddling his fingers. “Just… You’ve mentioned before that you like drinking beer every now and then…” A filthy lie that she’d casually told. “...and this one’s one of the more expensive brands… Did I… Nnnngh…”_

_He was clearly mentally kicking himself for not asking first. Chuckling, Shego shook her head. At least he’d put some thought into it. “It’s fine, Drew. I’m just…_ Surprised _, is all. I mentioned it, what, once?”_

_“Twice,” Drew said proudly._

_“Yeah. So the fact that you remembered…” It meant a lot. Not that she was actually going to say that._

_“So…?” He stared. “Are you, erm, gonna try it?”_

_She paused before boldly opening the box, taking a can, opening it, and taking a swig._

_The dark beer’s strong bitter flavor nearly overwhelmed her taste buds. The feel in her mouth was so heavy that it made her almost want to chew. It felt almost… Like milk? She struggled to swallow it, but once she did it didn’t seem as bad as she’d initially thought it was._

_“Well?” Drew eagerly waited for her assessment._

_“It’s…” She searched for the right word. “...acceptable.” The beaming smile she got in return made drinking the rest of the can worth it._

_He took his own can and made a toast. “Happy… Erm…” Drew looked at her. “How old are you?”_

_“I’m…” She paused. “...I’m 18.”_

_“18?” He gave her the side-eye. “Are you pulling my leg?”_

_“No.” Lie, lie, lie some more. “I’m 18, as of today.”_

_“...so I’ve been dating an underage girl?!” He began to hyperventilate._

_Great._

* * *

_“Haha!” Drew smirked his normal victorious smirk as he finished off some kind of equation in his notebook. “Got it!” He beamed at Shego. “Finally done!”_

_“Good job, Doc,” Shego said. And she meant it. He’d been working on that particular problem for_ hours _with a focus that she envied. How he was able to just incessantly work like that she didn’t have a clue._

_“So, Shego…” he closed his notebook, now done with his work for the day. “What did you want to do today?”_

_She sat, pondering. “I think that-..”_

_“Drewbie~” A series of loud, incessant knocks interrupted her thoughts._

_Drew gasped, checking the date on the calendar he had hanging on the wall above his hot plate. “Oh no!” He grabbed Shego by the arm. “I’m so sorry! I forgot the day…!”_

_Shego protested, “What’s going on?”_

_“I’m sorry, but you_ need _to hide!” he hissed quietly, trying to shove her under his bed._

_“DREWBIE!” The knocks grew louder, even more insistent than before._

_“Who is-..”_

_“My mother,” Drew said with the dread of a thousand men._

_Shego remembered him mentioning her before. Overbearing tyrant that could barely handle him being a mere thirty minutes walk away and living on-campus. As offended as she was at being shoved under his bed, she was also glad that he wasn’t up to parading her around his mother._

_“Okay, fine, I’ll take the hit this time,” Shego grumbled as she rolled underneath his crappy mattress, making sure to note that he owed her_ BIG TIME _for this._

_“_ **_DREWBIE_ ** _!” The noise was almost overpowering now._

_“Coming, Mother!” He was partially hunched over -_ so _not like how Shego was used to seeing him - as he opened the door. “Hello, Mother! Fancy seeing you here.”_

_Shego peered out from under the bed. In front of Drew was a short, sagging older woman, bright red hair done up in a beehive, with a flower patterned dress on. It_ screamed _‘I have not updated my wardrobe since the 50s’, and it didn’t seem like the woman was at all interested in updating her look either._

_It was obvious that they were related. The rounded chin, short and stubby nose, and ears that stuck out a mile wide were clear indicators of their relation._

_“Drewbie!” She adjusted her hair and scowled at him. “I can’t believe you! Leaving your poor mother out there in the hallway!”_

_“I’m sorry, Mother,” he said, cringing. “I was just, ah, cleaning up.” Drew straightened for a moment, like he’d had a brilliant idea, and continued, “Yes! I was cleaning up! You deserve something better than my dirty old apartment.”_

_“You deserve better than this too, Drew!” Shego couldn’t really disagree with her on that point. “Why you need to live on campus I have_ no idea _-..”_

_“Because I don’t have a car, Mother,” Drew sing-songed with tightly clenched smiling teeth. “I wouldn’t be able to make it to my classes otherwise.”_

_“Why do you have to go to school so far away!?”_

_“Mother, this is the closest college to the house,” Shego’s boyfriend said, not quite able to leave the deadpan out of his voice._

_“Drewbie! How could you talk to your mother like that?!” His mother put her hands on her hips and glared at him._

_Again, he cringed away. “I’m sorry, Mother!”_

_“As you should be!”_

_The entire visit ended up like that. Drew’s mother harangued him on_ everything _: the campus, his social life, his lack of grandbabies, his major… Everything she could criticize, she did._

_Finally, eventually, she winded down. Apparently out of things to hassle him about, she gave him a big kiss on the cheek._

_“Happy birthday, Drewbie!” she finally said, giving Drew an almost literally back-breaking hug. Shego could_ hear _his vertebrae groan in protest._

_Ah._ That’s _the day he forgot about. Suddenly Shego felt like kicking herself. How had she not realized it was his birthday?_

_“Mama just wanted to drop by and make sure that you weren’t forgetting about her…” His mother sounded genuinely sad._

_“I don’t forget about you, Mother,” Drew said defensively. “I just… I’ve been busy!”_

_“That’s no excuse to not visit your poor old mother!” she protested. “Maybe next time you’ll visit sooner than a whole week! A WHOLE WEEK, Drewbie!”_

_“Again, Mother, I’ve been busy!”_

_“Just don’t get too busy for any romance!” his mother tsked, beginning to make for the door. “I’m not getting any younger; I want to see a grandbaby before I die!”_

_Shego could see Drew roll his eyes, but he managed to keep the exasperation out of his voice as he said, “Yes, Mother, I’m certainly keeping my eye out for anyone who would be willing to do_ that _with me.”_

_“Good!” With one last bone-breaking hug, Drew waved his mother out the door._

_It was another minute of Drew leaning against the door, listening closely, before he gave a sigh of relief._

_“Okay, she’s gone.” He collapsed against the door, his face a deep red. “I’m so sorry you had to see that! Hear that! I, nnnnngh…” Drew hid his face in his hands._

_Shego rolled out from under the bed and eyed her boyfriend. She’d been considering punishing him for forcing her to hide… But it looked like he’d been tortured enough._

_“Drew?”_

_He didn’t respond._

_“Drew.”_

_“...yes, Shego?” he finally said, self-directed reproach in his voice._

_“...that woman is_ not _good for you.”_

* * *

_“So…” Shego loosely laughed. “...you’re tellin’ me tha’ they laughed ya outta th’ college?”_

_“You don’t have to say it like_ that _!” Drew complained, taking a swig of some of the swill he’d gotten his hands on. “It was more of a forced retreat!”_

_“HAHA!”_

_“Shego… Nnnngh…” He wiped a hand across his face and under his glasses._

_They were relaxing in her apartment that day. It was the weekend. Shego had given Drew a little bit of money to get them some decent booze so they could have a bit of fun. The buzzy feeling in Shego’s head certainly_ felt _fun._

_“I’m jus’ jokin’, Drewbie.” She lazily threw an arm around him. “Jus’ messin’ with ya.”_

_“Not funny,” he grumbled, taking another sip of his beer. Compared to her, he was a lightweight, which was why he was still nursing his second while she was already on her fifth._

_“Even with how much of a fuddy-duddy he was, at least James was a half-way decent person…”_

_She looked at Drew out of the corner of her eye. Man, was he adorable when he pouted. It made her want to touch him._

_Shego found herself climbing on her boyfriend and trailing kisses across his neck._

_“Shego?” he squawked, clearly surprised at how forward she was being._

_“I wanna be touchin’ you, Drew,” she said, reaching her hands under his shirt and feeling his wiry frame. This was about as far as they’d gotten in the last year; Shego was too nervous and Drew was probably too afraid to make a move. But, she was finding now that she was decidedly less nervous about it..._

_Drew eyed her critically. “...I think you’ve had too much to drink.”_

_She eyed him back. “Wha?”_

_He pulled her hands from under his shirt and held them firmly. Drew repeated, “I think you’ve had too much to drink, Shego.”_

_“I dun think I ‘ave,” she murmured, trying to wrestle him into a kiss._

_He dodged out of the way. “Now I_ know _you’ve had too much.”_

_“I wan’ kissy face,” Shego said, wiggling around on his lap._

_“No.” He was strangely firm._

_“I_ wan’ _kissy face.” She grabbed him by his shirt lapel and forced him closer._

_“Shego, I said n-..”_

_“I wan’ KISSY FACE!” Her hand that wasn’t holding Drew lit up, plasma shifting black and green. She held it threateningly at him, daring him to try and deny her._

_Shego hadn’t seen sheer mortal terror until that moment. It wasn’t something she would’ve normally minded, if it hadn’t been on her boyfriend. And, considering he was a pure regular Joe, she was certain that she really_ could _hurt him that badly._

_She swiftly jumped backwards and extinguished her flame. Even drunk she controlled her body perfectly._

_“...yer right. I’ve ‘ad too much.” Shego waved at him. “I’m gonna go ta bed. G’night, Drew.”_

_To her surprise, he was still there on her couch in the morning, sleeping away. She’d half-expected him to vanish and never speak to her again, considering what she’d done._

_She vowed not to drink around Drew ever again._

* * *

_Shego thought._

_She’d been thinking a lot since that night._

_Drew had been avoiding the topic of it like the plague, acting like it didn’t happen. Shego was okay with that. She didn’t want it to have happened either._

_But… At the same time, it was making her think. Where was their relationship going? She couldn’t deny that she’d been eyeing some of the eye candy on campus… But she wouldn’t mess around on Drew. He would’ve deserved a clean break at least. Not that she would even_ want _a relationship with any of those bozos beyond something casual._

_Why was she so nervous about starting the next stage of their relationship? Why was she being such a… A…_ Teenager _about it? It was just physical intimacy! It wasn’t like it was something special, no matter the grandstanding about ‘virginity’ that everyone touted for women. This was the modern era, for crying out loud! And he was her best friend! Even moreso!_

_That was why she practically tackled him onto her couch a week later and let him have it._

_She was relentless in her assault. She trailed kisses all over his shoulders - forcing his shirt off, not that he really resisted - and down his body. Eventually, they found themselves clad in only their underwear._

_“Bedroom?” Shego asked, breathless._

_“Bedroom,” Drew said in a strange rumble she’d never heard from him before. But before they could leave, he stopped her. “Erm… Wait...” He pulled his wallet out of his pants and fumbled around in it. After a moment, he pulled out-.._

_“A condom?” She tilted an eyebrow at him. “You were pretty sure about this, huh?”_

_Sputtering, he laughed and said, “I, erm, uhm, better safe than sorry?”_

_She smirked._

* * *

_Her birthday came and went rather fast. This time, she’d gone back to Go City to celebrate. She’d debated bringing Drew for something like a half-second before she laughed that idea out of her head. There would’ve been_ no way _she could’ve kept her actual age away from him if she’d done that. So she celebrated it, alone, with family._

_Now she was on the pill_ and _they used condoms. Drew’s mother was strangely pleased with the notion that her Drewbie was at least getting_ some _action. Shego couldn’t get them herself - Hego would’ve had to go with, then he’d ask why, then he’d’ve freaked out - so they depended on his mother to help out._

_If there was one thing she had to give Drew credit for, it was his creativity. Not only with his various inventions and creations, but under the sheets as well. Half of the things they did were from his brilliant mind, and she couldn’t help but enjoy it all very, very much._

_Until she got sick._

_Every morning, for hours on end, she found herself in the bathroom throwing up her breakfast and dry heaving. It was getting hard for her to get to her classes, which sucked as she was so, so close to getting her bachelor’s. Drew was, of course, concerned. Eventually he went to his mother to get some kind of folk remedy for the flu._

_He came back steaming. The angriest she’d ever seen him, and she’d seen him after an English test where he got every question wrong. He paced back and forth, hands behind his back, unable to say any words while his face flushed a hot pink._

_“She sabotaged us,” he choked out when he finally managed to say something beyond his angry grunts and growls._

_“Sabotaged?” Shego stared at him, curious as to what in the world who could sabotage what with them._

_“Our birth control…!” he rasped, running a hand through his hair. “Your pills, my condoms…! I’m_ never _letting that woman near either of us again!”_

_Shego had a sinking feeling in her gut. It was nearly impossible for it to have happened, really… But since when was she a stranger to impossible? She’d survived getting crushed by a giant comet and came out of it superhuman. What was another impossible feat?_

_“Doc, don’t panic,” Shego said. “We don’t know for sure-..”_

_“We_ will _,” he growled, pulling out several pregnancy tests from his overnight bag. “A_ ‘gift’ _from my mother,” Drew snarled. “I trust she wouldn’t tamper with_ these _. Still in the box, and a false positive wouldn’t do her any good.”_

_“Okay…” she sighed, thinking of all the ways they could fix this if it was a thing. Adoption, abortion… Shego took the tests to the bathroom._

_Ten minutes later and she was breathless._

_Positive. They were all positive. Not a single negative one, or faulty one. They were all very, very clear._

_She was pregnant._

_Drew groaned, lowering himself to the floor along the wall. “Great. Just great!” He growled and hit the wall. “How are we going to deal with_ this _?!”_

_“We keep it.” The words left her mouth almost as soon as she thought them. He looked at her like she was crazy. Which she probably was. Hadn’t she been_ just _thinking about the various ways they could fix this?_

_But it being reality was far, far different than the idea of a baby._

_A baby. She was pregnant, a far shot from what the doctors had said, with a man who she’d been dating for over a year. It wasn’t unusual, and it wasn’t_ bad _._

_They could survive this._

_“Shego…” Drew looked at her, face crinkled. “This could ruin your life…!”_

_“No it won’t,” Shego said, mind racing now. “I’m almost finished with my bachelor’s. Just one more month, and I’ve got it. You, you’re close to finishing your degree, right?”_

_“If I can just pass the next English course, I’ll be set,” he grumbled, his mind momentarily taken off of the problem._

_“See? We’ll be fine! Although…” She sighed as she settled down next to him. As modern as she was, there was one thing she’d secretly wanted before she’d ever consider having a child._

_“What?” Drew asked. “What’s wrong?”_

_“Well…” Shego cringed. “...I’d been hoping to be, well,_ married _before I had a kid.”_

_“...let’s do it.”_

_“Hm?” Shego looked at him._

_“Let’s get married!” He looked back at her. “We’re both the age of consent, right? We can do it!” He took her hands in his. “Shego, would you marry me?”_

_Her mind raced. This was a lot. Too much. There was too much going on at the moment._

_“I need a few minutes to process this, Drew,” she said, thinking as fast as she could. Drew swallowed, clearly feeling in limbo, but he reluctantly nodded._

_Hego would definitely show up for her graduation. Could she hide this from him? Would she be showing by then? She_ was _16, the age of consent in that state, and she still had strings to pull to make it happen… But at the the same time, she’d been hoping for a super fancy wedding. There was no way they’d be able to afford anything beyond a formal courthouse licensure. Did she really want to do this?_

_...why the hell not? Divorce was a thing if everything went south. And they could have a recommitment ceremony when they got more settled._

_“Sure, Doc. Let’s get hitched.”_

* * *

_“What.” It was a statement, not a question._

_“I flunked._ Again _.” Drew wiped his eyes._

_Shego couldn’t believe it! After all that work… The studying, the sleepless nights, the quizzing… And he_ still _couldn’t pass a basic gen ed course. What kind of idiot was he?_

_“It’s okay! We’ll figure this out…” Drew began to pace. “I’ll just need to… To… Find a job!” He brightened. “Yes! I’ll find a job!”_

_“Without a degree?” Shego asked, rubbing at her back. If there was one thing she hadn’t been prepared for with the pregnancy, it was the back pain._

_They'd already agreed that Shego should wait until after the pregnancy to work. But, now that that boat was sunk, it looked like they'd have to scrap that plan..._

_“Just having college credit can get you pretty far,” he assured her. “I just need to find the right pla-..”_

_He was interrupted by a knock at his door._

_“Who in the world could_ that _be this late?” Shego asked, looking outside at the night sky._

_“Whoever it is will just have to leave!” Drew grumbled, walking over to the door. He opened it and began growling, “Get lo-..” before he was cut off by the person shoving their way into his room and shutting the door._

_The woman was wearing a dark blue outfit with a belt and a holster of some kind on her chest. Her hair was swept back into a high ponytail, her dark eyes piercing as sharp as spears. A strange-looking watch sat on her wrist..._

_“Hello. My name is Miss Director. I’m here to offer you a deal…”_

_“I don’t care! Buzz off!” Drew said, trying to open the door to his apartment. To both Shego and Drew’s surprise, Miss Director easily held the door shut._

_“I assure you, you’ll want to hear me out.” The woman paused, then asked, “How far along are you?”_

_Drew and Shego’s jaws both dropped. Recovering first, Shego said, “Yeah-.. No, not playing this game.” She eyed the woman critically. “You’re from one of those hoaky secret society things, aren’t you?”_

_“No stranger to them?” Miss Director asked, not denying it in the least._

_“I used to do hero work,” Shego replied. “I know about quite a few of them…”_

_“You haven’t heard of us,” the woman assured them. “I’m a representative from GJ.”_

_“GJ?” Shego certainly had_ not _heard of them. Then again, Go City was strangely isolated. For all of Shego’s bluff, she knew she was really out of her depth._

_“Global Justice. I would offer a card, but…” She chuckled at her apparent joke._

_Shego growled. “What do you want?”_

_“We want to offer you a job.”_

_“Sorry lady, but I’m gonna be a child psychologist.” Shego crossed her arms. “I don’t plan on doing any hero work anytime soon.”_

_“Not you, Mrs Lipsky.” She turned to Drew. “We want_ you _, Mr Lipsky.”_

_It was so weird being called Mrs Lipsky… But they_ had _tied the knot, which made it official…_

_“Me?” Drew blinked several times. “Why me?”_

_“Despite your problems with the English language, your skills are too valuable to ignore.” Miss Director looked about the room, amusement in her gaze. “We’re offering a competitive salary, full benefits, and insurance, which_ includes _prenatal and postnatal care, as if you had graduated.” She smirked, clearly having done her homework._

_“Hm… I, nnnngh…” Drew looked helplessly at his partner. It was clear he was going to take her lead on this._

_As much as Shego hated it, it sounded like a good opportunity._

_“This isn’t all some kind of hokey fake bullshit, is it?” Shego asked._

_“Would you believe me if I said no?”_

_Damn. She had her there. “No, I wouldn’t.”_

_“You’ll just have to trust me on this,” Miss Director said._

_“Doc?” They shared a look, Shego nodding almost imperceptibly._

_Drew then turned to Miss Director and nodded. “Fine. I’ll become part of your secret society whatchamacallit.”_

_Miss Director smiled. “You won’t regret this…”_

* * *

_Shego woke up, exhausted. The day before had been awful. She would_ never _want to go through that again. 8 hours of agony. Pure, unadulterated agony._

_But it was over. Drew was sitting next to her bed, a small crib nestled between his chair and Shego’s bed._

_And in his arms…_

_Shego risked venturing forth from the bed, ignoring the sharp and throbbing pain down below so she could take a look at their little bundle._

_Drew looked up at her, face alight._

_“What do you think?” he said in a rush. “I mean, isn’t she_ amazing _?”_

_She looked at the sleeping baby in Drew’s arms._

_To Shego’s relief, it seemed that the Lipsky family traits were mostly recessive. Besides the rounded face and the forehead, their baby looked a lot more like Shego’s family than Drew’s. Her nose and ears was all Shego’s, and on the top of her head was a tuft of dark red hair._

_Shego smirked. “Yeah, Doc, she_ is _pretty amazing…”_

_“Hehehe!” Drew giggled as he held the baby, which seemed to wake her up. She screamed her little lungs out, large eyes searching and arms reaching out desperately. His face fell. “Oh. Erm…” He shrugged helplessly and asked, “What do I do now?!”_

_Shego looked at the bundle. Deep green eyes… Shego was certain that it would lighten with time, but for now she found them absolutely mesmerizing._

_“Here…” Shego wasn’t sure if it was instinct or remembering instructions from the nurses, but the green woman knew what to do. She took their baby and held her close to her breast. Automatically, the baby began suckling._

_It was a strange, almost painful sensation, different than when Drew would do it._

_“Oh. She’s hungry.” Drew nodded. “Glad you knew what to do!”_

_Shego shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a natural.” She settled back onto her bed with their bundle, cradling their child with a softness that Shego wasn’t used to giving. For her baby, though? She would’ve done whatever she needed._

_To Shego’s amusement, she noted that what her mom used to say about mothers always loving their babies even when they were screaming angry messes might’ve actually been true._

_“So, uhm…” Drew looked between their baby and Shego. “...what did you want to name her?”_

_“Hm?” Shego looked at her husband._

_He repeated, “What did we want to name her? Any ideas?”_

_“Hm…” Shego looked down at their baby. They hadn’t really thought to talk about names. They kept putting it off. She had assumed he had a name he was too nervous to say, but now it seemed that he really_ didn’t _have an idea._

_“...Kimberly.” Shego looked at Drew. “Kimberly Go Lipsky.”_

_“Kimberly?” Drew tilted his eyebrow at her. “I’ll bite. Why Kimberly?”_

_“Because…” The green woman stroked their baby’s back. “...that was my mother’s name.”_

_“Ah.” Her husband shrugged. “That’s fine with me!_ I _certainly don’t have anyone that I want to name her after…”_

_“So we’ve got it.” Shego kissed the baby’s head. “Hello, Kimberly Go Lipsky…”_

* * *

_“I’ve got to work late tonight.”_

_Shego sighed mid-diaper change and looked at Drew. “Really? Again?”_

_Drew shrugged helplessly._

_“You know we could just live off of my degree, right?” Shego shrugged. “It wouldn’t be too hard for me to find full-time work. And then you could stay home with Princess.”_

_Hego had been bothering her again about moving back to Go City, just like he did after he’d graduated. There was no way,_ no way _she was gonna move back with her family. She knew that Hego would try to wrangle her back into hero work, and Shego was certain that she didn’t want to be a hero. Not to mention she was still 16… Her birthday was coming up in a couple of weeks. Maybe then Shego could admit everything to her brother without him blowing a gasket._

_Not now, though._

_“Hmph.” Shego finished changing their daughter and picked her up. “You_ know _you’re more domestic than I am…”_

_“Nnnnngh…” Drew grunted. “I’d feel, well,_ useless _if I couldn’t contribute somehow!”_

_“Then get a job at a drive-thru or something! I don’t care!” Shego rolled her eyes. “You’d be contributing anyway, keeping watch over Kimberly while I’m at work.”_

_His gaze traveled to the redhead. “Are you sure?”_

_“Positive.” Shego smirked evilly as she noted, “After all,_ I’m _the one with the education…”_

_He ground his teeth and snorted, “Shego…!”_

_She laughed._

_“That’s_ not _funny! That’s why I’m stuck with this stupid job in the first place!”_

_“Yeah, yeah…” the green woman said, waving her hand at her husband. Then , seriously, she asked, “So, Doc, what’re you gonna do about it?”_

_“I, ngh…” Drew sat and thought for a moment. “I, erm, guess I could quit…” Then he rushed, “But not until you have secure employment first!”_

_“Doy!” Shego went over and flicked his nose with her free hand._

_“Ouch!” He rubbed his nose and grunted, “That wasn’t necessary!”_

_“I think it was!” she countered. “Of_ course _I’m gonna find a job first. Until then…” She tried to shrug carelessly, but couldn’t quite pull it off. “I guess we’ll just have to deal.”_

_“Okay.” Drew nodded. “So, for supper tomorrow, I was thinking about making some meatloaf…”_

_“Ugh,” Shego said with a shudder. “I_ hate _meatloaf.”_

_“Well,_ I _like it! Especially with the Lipsky family recipe.”_

_Kimberly began to cry._

_“No no, shhhh, it’s okay!” Shego said, bouncing the baby on her hip. “Mommy and Daddy are just having a disagreement, that’s all…”_

_She just cried louder._

_“Could you?” Shego handed the baby off to Drew._

_Drew gave their baby her blanket and proceeded to make a variety of funny faces, sticking his out his tongue and puffing his cheeks out. This seemed to work, the baby watching her father with an insurmountable amount of glee._

_“How you’re so good with her I’ll never know,” the green woman said. “You_ suck _with other children…”_

_“Oh, like you’re any better Miss Psychologist!” Drew said with a little more heat than was necessary. “I haven’t forgotten that substitute teacher debacle from a couple of months ago!”_

_“Whatever.” Shego sighed minutely. “I’ll start looking in the morning.”_

_“And we can talk about supper more in the morning too,” he nodded._

_“Okay…” She went over and gave him a kiss, a long, deep, insistent one._

_But he pushed her away and pointed at the clock. “I need to be there in 15 minutes. Not even enough for a quickie.”_

_Shego whined a little, but said nothing._

_He handed their baby back to her and got his boots on. He’d already put his chemical-resistant pants and coat on earlier. Drew gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and snuggled her side lightly._

_“I love you, Shego.”_

_She sighed and leaned into him. “I love you too, you big dork.”_

_He walked out the door with a wave of his hand._

_He never came home._


	8. Chapter 8

_It was days later, and Shego was frantic._

_She didn’t outwardly show it - what would’ve been the point? - but she was certainly reacting as such._

_Shego reported him missing to the local authorities._

_She’d tried to get in contact with GJ. The only thing she had was a number. She called it, but got only static._

_She’d melted the phone at that. Shego had never felt more helpless in her life._

_She wasn’t concerned that Drew had gotten out of Dodge. He would know better than to do that, and he cared too much about the two of them to even think about it._

_So now she was retracing his steps, Kimmie in tow in a stroller with her favorite baby blanket that Drew had stitched her name into. She knew where the tube was that connected him to his work, having once stopped by to sign off on some documentation. She’d been considering tearing it open and forcing GJ to talk with her… But she wasn’t sure, even then, that they’d do anything about it. Stupid secret organizations and their plausible deniability…_

_Then, suddenly, a rough-looking man in a combat suit stood in front of her._

_“Are you Shego?” he asked gruffly._

_Shego knew better than to answer; it was clear he was a hench. Instead, she punched him out in one clean go. All she had to do now was drag him somewhere to grill him - literally - for any information on her doc._

_Kimmie began imitating her, even letting out a small grunt at the apex of the punch._

_“Awww, how sweet…” a voice said from behind her. “Like mother, like daughter.”_

_Shego lit up and swiped behind her. She managed to hit him solidly in the chest, forcing him back._

_Now Shego got a good look at the odds._

_All around her, henches. At least a dozen men surrounded her, cutting her off from any form of escape._

_She almost felt sorry for them._

_Almost._

_They sized her up for a few moments, clearly trying to get a read on the best angle to attack her from._

_She struck first._

_Flames erupted from her hands as she blasted the front radius of her with searing-hot plasma. Most of the henches had the sense to flee, but a few stupidly brave ones tried to call a bluff that wasn’t there. They ended up screaming on the ground, trying to put out the flames that ate at their clothes._

_The ones behind her made to move in. Shego easily flipped over the baby stroller and delivered a windmill kick that knocked back a couple of henches and straight-up knocked out a third._

_Man, it’d been a while since she got to let loose like this!_

_Almost laughing, she tossed out a few balls of flame here and there, trying to force them back and away from her. She managed to group a half-dozen of them together. Perfect._

_She jumped, somersaulting into the middle of the group and flipped onto her hands, perfectly kicked out and knocking all of the henches out from the force of the blows._

_She hopped up, making a ‘come hither’ motion to the rest of them._

_“Wait.” One of them made a stopping motion to the rest and sighed. “I hate doing this. Really, I do. But you need to come with us. Boss’s orders.” The man did seem to be genuinely remorseful. In his hands, he held Shego’s little princess._

_At least he was handling Kimmie with a careful arm._

_“Don’t worry,” the hench said. “As long as you cooperate, she’ll be fine.”_

_Shego cursed at herself. She did the only thing she could do: stood down. They closed in, locking a fully-encompassed handcuff over her hands. They locked her feet together next. Then, one of them took a large, menacing-looking shock stick and slammed it straight into her back._

_“That was uncal-..” was all she heard before everything faded to black._

* * *

_Lights._

_Blinding, painful lights were the next thing Shego was aware of. It certainly didn’t help her throbbing head. She opened her eyes, unsure of what was going on for a moment._

_Then, she remembered. It was hard not to when she was strapped to a weird machine, hands again encompassed in metal while he husband dangled in front of her on a rack._

_He looked like a complete mess. A large grisly cut was openly bleeding from his face, almost as if he’d been carved from eye to cheek. He was bloodied from various cuts and bruises all along his mostly exposed body, and Shego noticed burn marks all along his torso. The fear in his eyes was reminiscent of the one night that they never talked about, this time apparently directed_ at _her instead of_ because _of her._

_“..-ALK! Or else we’ll start with her next!” A large buff man with swept-back brown hair screamed at Drew._

_“I don’t KNOW anything!” he shouted back, sobbing. “Please, I don’t know_ anything _about Project Utopia!”_

_“You GJ agents are so predictable…” the apparent villain sneered. “Always_ so _loyal to that_ tramp _of a sister of mine!” He stomped over to the machine that Shego was hooked up to. “Give up the information or else I’ll start sucking out everything until all that’s left is a shell!”_

_Drew struggled against his bindings, screaming, “I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING! Please! I don’t even know what you’re talking about! I’m just some, some college drop-out!”_

_“Don’t try to distract me with your petty lesser projects like that Project Phoenix junk! Your memories are clearly protected from intrusion by my brain-tap machine! I WANT PROJECT UTOPIA!”_

_Shego began struggling against her bindings. If she could just heat her hands up enough…!_

_He pushed a button on the machine._

_Shego was struck by a sense of deja vu. Except this wasn’t right. Since when was she strapped to some kind of maddie machine? She wasn’t sure what was going on, but her being strapped down wasn’t something she wanted to put up with. The manacles looked slightly melted, but not enough for her to escape._

_In front of her was a man, tied up to a rack. She was pretty sure his name was Drew? He looked pretty roughed up, what with all the cuts and stuff that littered his body. Wiry guy, too._ Complete _dork. She wasn’t sure why he was trapped as well, but it was her reluctant job as a hero to save this guy._

_“GIVE ME PROJECT UTOPIA!”_

_The man on the rack sobbed but said nothing._

_The large man pushed a button on the machine._

_Shego was struck by a sense of deja vu. Except… Since when had she been strapped down in some maddie machine? She had no idea what was going on, but she wasn’t_ about _to put up with it!_

_Luckily for her, the manacles they’d fitted her to looked to have been partially melted. All it needed was a little more…!_

_She ignored the sobbing of a man in front of her. Some loser tied to a rack. Looked pretty gruesome, but what did she care? She came first, after all!_

_With a shout, she burst her hands free of the manacles. She quickly pulled her head out of the suction cup helmet and melted the bonds holding her feet._

_“You morons!” The clearly villainous man screamed, looking around him. “You secured her wrong!”_

_A ring of henches began to form around her._

_“Yeah… I’m out!” Shego let loose a blast of flame, knocking and setting alight a great deal of the henchmen before she jumped over a set and ran out the nearest door._

_“IDIOTS!” the man shouted, the sound echoing behind her as she made her escape._

_She left that one guy behind, but so what? It didn’t look like he’d be in any shape to tattle on her to her brothers._

_Her brothers… Where_ were _they? More importantly, where was_ she _? She looked around the hallway, realizing that she hadn’t escaped the base yet. She cursed, but knew it was only a matter of time before she found her way out. No one could keep her down, not even some megalomaniac with some kind of sick torture fetish..._

* * *

“...and that’s how it went,” Shego said with a heavy sigh.

“So you just left me to be _tortured_?” Drakken said, hurt plain on his face.

“To me, you were just some chump. Why would I bother sticking around to save some guy when I was captured as well?” The green woman shrugged.

“But…” Kim looked at Shego. “...what about me? How did I end up on the Possible’s doorstep?”

“I…” Shego looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know, Pumpkin. I left you there too…” She walked over to the couch where the other two were seated and gave them a big, heartfelt hug. “I’m so sorry…”

“Erm, Shego…” Drakken wiggled a little. “You don’t really have anything to apologize about! It’s not like _you_ did any of this.”

“...you’re right.” She stood up straight, releasing the two from the hug. “You’re absolutely right. It isn’t any of our faults…” Shego looked at Kim, a strange look in her eyes. “Cupcake, I think it’s time you go home.”

“Oooookay…?”

Everything had passed by in a blur after that. Shego practically shoved the teen into the hovercar and took off, barely giving Kim time to get her things together.

The ride was, again, silent. Shego seemed determined not the look at Kim the entire time, instead staring forward with an angry look on her face. She just grew angrier and angrier the more time passed. Eventually, by the time they arrived at Middleton, Shego’s teeth were grinding together and she grunted every time she exhaled.

“So…”

Kim’s one-word statement seemed to snap Shego out of it. The green woman blinked a few times, then directed the hovercar to the Possible residence.

“Well, here we are,” Shego said, setting the vehicle down easily on the lawn. Eyeing the house, she asked, “Got a remodel?”

“Nah. The Lorwardians crushed our old house with their quadropods,” Kim said like it was no big, because it wasn't.

“...whatever.” Shego paused as the teen hopped out, night bag over her shoulder. “I guess I’ll see you around…”

“Yeah, I guess I will…” This was so, so, _so_ awkweird. They should be celebrating and crying, bonding and talking about their future and stuff, weren’t they? They _were_ family now, right? So why was everything so… _Weird_?

...maybe it was the same reason Kim didn’t want to talk. Even at the end of the day, they were Drakken and Shego, and she was Kim Possible. They’d only known for the last couple of days that they were a family. It wouldn’t be an overnight magical switch flip that the three of them would end up hanging out like family did.

“Just… Don’t be a stranger, all right?” Shego asked with soft eyes.

“Don’t worry, Shego…” Kim decided to inject a bit of levity into the sitch. “I’ll see you next time you and Drakken try to pull off taking over the world!”

Shego smirked, just a little. Then, pulling up and over the tree line, she left.

* * *

Kim skipped out of her class and called Wade up on the Kimmunicator.

“Have you heard anything, Wade?” she asked, hoping for some kind of clue.

The rotund boy shook his head. “No, Kim. No sign of Drakken _or_ Shego. Sorry…”

The redhead sighed. “It’s okay, Wade. Just keep trying.”

“I’ll let you know the second I catch anything,” he assured her before closing the line.

It had been several weeks since the revelation of Kim’s parentage. In that time, Kim had found a psychologist that specialized in family dynamics to unload her feelings on. It had taken a few sessions, but eventually Kim was able to fully come to terms with everything.

She was Drakken and Shego’s daughter. The only thing that had truly changed was the relationship between her and the two of them.

She’d wanted to start to really get to know the two of them beyond their villain/hero dynamic. She knew them well enough in some aspects, but what they were like with close family? What they could’ve been like as a family unit? Kim wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but she knew that if she didn’t try she wouldn’t ever feel right with herself again.

The only problem was that Drakken and Shego apparently vanished after her visit. Gone, even from Wade’s prodigious skills. Kim wasn’t sure why, but she knew it was definitely on purpose.

At the same time, she just couldn’t believe that they would try to take over the world. Not if it meant confronting Kim. The way Shego had been acting… Was that self-directed, or was there something going on in her head that Kim wasn’t privy to?

Whatever it was, it gave Kim a sinking feeling in her gut.

Suddenly, her Kimmunicator went off.

“Go Wade!” Kim said, thrilled. He must’ve located them!

“I found them…” Wade said slowly, carefully.

“You did?!” Kim’s excitement was swiftly replaced with concern as her tech guru shifted uncomfortably. “...what’s wrong?” Her mind jumped to the worst possibility she could come up with. Resigned, she asked, “They’re trying to take over the world, aren’t they?”

“No.” Wade looked very, very sad at that statement.

“I don’t understand… What’s going on?” Kim pulled the watch closer. “Are they okay?”

“...for now, yeah… But…” He seemed to be having trouble coming up with the right words. “...I don’t think they will for long…”

Kim’s heart dropped. “What?”

Wade gave a heartfelt sigh. “...they’re attacking a WEE base.”


	9. Chapter 9

Anarchy.

That was the only word Kim had for the scene she was coming upon.

It was as if a mad scientist had taken everything they had and unleashed it all at once.

Kim suspected that that was exactly what had happened.

Her and Ron were coming upon the western edge of the Scandinavian Mountains in Scandinavia. Even from where they were, they could see explosions, fleeing men, and robots of all kinds wreaking havoc below.

Deciding they didn’t have time for pleasantries, Kim merely waved at their ride and signaled Ron to jump with her.

It was a short, fast descent to Kim, probably because she was so focused on figuring out a way into the base. It wasn’t hard; all they had to do was go the opposite direction of the fleeing men.

The hard part was figuring out how to get between all of the fighting.

The men who were fleeing were massively outnumbered by those who were staying to fight. Shock sticks and battle batons met their match against swinging metal arms and laser blasts. To Kim’s surprise, she spotted a few Bebes in the crowd, clearly modified to, likely, not rebel as they did before. Alongside them were a few Diablo robots, likely also modified to keep their form, some of the robots from the time Kim and S.A.D.I.E. worked together, and, looking up the mountain, Kim could see what had likely been the Avalauncher that she’d missed stopping due to Team Impossible’s interference throwing rocks, snowballs, and other projectiles down the mountain.

“C’mon, Ron!” Kim said as she landed with a roll, discarding her chute with flourish.

“Got it, KP!” Ron rolled as well, but got himself caught in his ropes.

Rufus cut him free with his teeth before hopping back into his pocket with a chitter of “Good luck!”

Team Possible made their way across the battlefield, dodging the various mini-battles that were taking place and battling a couple of henches on the way.

“Hey, ah, KP?” Ron asked as they swiftly made their way into the base. “Is it just me, or are we being ignored?”

“Now that you mention it…” Kim thought about it for a second. It almost seemed like Team Possible… Was in a blind spot? For the robots, at least...

Kim felt a little choked up as she realized the probable ‘why’.

Drakken and Shego…

“Well, whatever it is,” Ron said, breaking her thoughts, “I hope it continues!”

“I have a feeling it will…” Kim said with a wide grin.

Once they were inside, the redhead called Wade. “Wade! Do you have a lock on Drakken and Shego’s locations?”

“Just a sec…” He typed on his computer for a few seconds, then shouted, “Got ‘em! They’re actually together…” he frowned “...fighting Gemini.”

“Fighting? Together? Since when does Drakken do any hand-to-hand combat?” Ron asked.

“There was that one time on the train when I forgot everything…” Kim reminded him. “I’m willing to bet that after that Shego trained him more. And don’t forget about his vines…”

“Yeah, it does look like he’s using those things like he knows what he’s doing,” Wade confirmed. “And get this: they’re actually doing really well!”

“Really?” Kim couldn’t keep the incredulity out of her voice.

“Yeah!” Wade pulled the security cam footage up that he was streaming directly from the cameras.

Gemini was shooting rockets every which way, trying to hit either of the nefarious duo. For their part, Drakken and Shego were doing a very good job not getting hit. Drakken was using his vines as shields, using them to intercept missiles and throw them back at the one-eyed villain. Shego kept Gemini on his toes as well, shooting flames in short bursts at his legs.

It was a deadly dance they were performing. Someone would slip up eventually, and considering the three, Kim’s bet was on Drakken.

“We have to get to them,” Kim said as one of Drakken’s flailing vines took out the security camera. “Wade, do you have a path figured out?”

“I do… But there’s a problem…” Wade pulled up a counter. “Per his normal MO, Gemini’s hit the self-destruct button. You guys only have 15 minutes to either stop the countdown or get everyone out of there.”

“That should be easy enou-..” Ron started.

“They’re on opposite sides of the base.”

“...oh.” The wind taken out of his sails, Ron looked to Kim. “What didja wanna do, KP?”

“Divide and conquer?” Kim suggested.

Ron nodded, a flash of blue in his eyes. “A-booyah! Divide and conquer!” He gave Kim a high-five and asked, “Okay, where are we going?”

“I’ll take Drakken, Shego, and Gemini. You get to that self-destruct shut off before someone gets hurt!”

“Okay then.” Wade typed a few moments and brought up a map on the Kimmunicator. “Kim’s is easy enough to get to. Just go down the hall and take a left. That’ll lead to the hanger, where they’re fighting…” Wade activated the Ronnicator. “Ron, yours is going to be a little more tricky. I’ll have to direct you.”

“Fine by me!” Ron began running down the hall and took the second right.

“It’s the other way!” Kim heard Wade’s voice call out.

“Alright…” She slammed her fist into her palm. “Mission time…”

Kim ran down the hallway and took the first left.

After running for what felt like forever, heart pounding at the thought of what in the world was happening during the fight while she wasn’t watching, she finally came to the wide open space that she saw in the video.

To her shock, the scene she came across was one she wouldn’t have imagined in a million years.

Drakken,  _ Drakken _ , had Gemini in the grips of his vines. The one-eyed villain’s arms were trapped in the vines, his rocket fingers stuck clean to his thigh. If he tried to use them, he would’ve blown his own leg off. Gemini looked singed on the left side, clearly having taken one of Shego’s blasts to his chest.

Drakken and Shego didn’t look as well put together, even though they had apparently won. 

Drakken was limping, a vicious open wound on his thigh from where he probably took a rocket. Strangely, he wasn’t whining about how much it hurt, his angry scowl instead focused on the one-eyed villain. Burnt vines hung out from his coat, the stress from having taken the brunt force of Gemini’s assault showing.

Shego’s hair was partially burned off in the back. Her catsuit was dirty with smoke and torn in several spots, where blood was seeping through. She, too, was heedless of her injuries, her gaze completely taken with Gemini.

The two of them were talking at the villain, but what they were saying Kim couldn’t hear.

“Drakken! Shego!” she cried, interrupting whatever rant they were probably giving Gemini. “Stop!”

The two villains barely glanced in her direction.

“Stay out of this, Kimmie,” Shego said, voice firm.

“I won’t!” Kim began making her way over to the three of them, but was stopped when Drakken gave Gemini an experimental squeeze and flipped him upside-down. The one-eyed villain gasped out at the pressure put on his lungs.

“Don’t you  _ dare _ try to take this from us, Kimberly,” Drakken growled. “You don’t get to… To just show up, and stop us! We  _ deserve _ this!”

“Drakken, stop…” Kim made a calming motion, hoping to save Gemini’s life. “You can’t do this…”

“I can, and I  _ will _ ,” he snarled back. “You can’t stop us this time!”

“But first, we were hoping to give a little bit back to him…” Shego vaguely shrugged, but Kim could tell she was tensed for a fight. “Y’know, snap off a few fingers, pull out his other eye, bust a few ribs…” A fist was encompassed in plasma. “Maybe a flame enema?”

“Ohhhh, I like that one!” Drakken cackled. “We should totally do it!”

This was  _ so _ wrong… This wasn’t-.. Drakken and Shego weren’t like this. What was wrong with them?

“...Mom, Dad,  _ please _ …!”

Drakken stiffened, then snarled, fists clenched, “You don’t get to call us that!” He turned to her, anguish clear on his face. “You can’t! You  _ can’t _ call us that! We were never-..” he choked, then gasped “We never got the chance.” Rage clouded his face and vines flailed viciously as he pointed at Gemini and shrieked, “AND IT’S ALL HIS FAULT!”

“You don’t think I feel robbed?” The redhead grabbed her arm, squeezing. “Wondering what kind of life we could’ve had? I love my parents, I really do… But knowing you could’ve had a different life, with other parents who would’ve loved you just as much? It’s hard to process, really…

“But seeing you two, like this? Because of me?” Kim shivered, then begged, “Please, stop… It’s not too late! You can come back, turn him over to GJ, and we can try to piece our lives together… You don’t have to be like him…”

That seemed to catch Shego and Drakken off guard, Shego reacting like she’d been slapped. Almost belatedly, she looked between Kim and Gemini, as if seeing things for the first time. 

Drakken, for his part, recoiled and growled, “He DESERVES it! He  _ took you from us _ ! He took US from us! I-.. I can’t-..” Tears formed in his eyes. Shaking his head, he muttered, “We could’ve been happy...”

“We can  _ still _ be happy,” Kim assured him, walking a few more steps closer. “Just…  _ Stop _ . Please. For me?”

“Doc…” Shego turned to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “...Kimmie’s right. I think we’ve done enough...”

“That’s easy for  _ you _ to say! You  _ remember everything _ !” Drakken growled. “What do I have? A giant blank! I don’t  _ have _ any happy memories of our time in college. I don’t  _ get _ to remember what  _ our daughter _ looked like! I can’t-..”

Shego slapped him. Hard.

“Will you listen to yourself? Talk about a goddamned sensitive baby!” she said. “‘Wah wah wah, I don’t remember anything’? Really? You’re gonna go  _ that _ route?”

Drakken stared, shocked. “But, but Shego…”

“If you care so much about memories, maybe we should look into making new ones, yeah?” Shego waved at Kim. “Look at her! She isn’t rejecting us! She isn’t saying ‘no’ like we thought! She  _ wants  _ us to be in her life.”

“I… I… Nnnnngh…”

“And hey, if you really want to see the memories, I’m sure a ‘genius’ like yourself can make something so we can watch my memories together, right?”

“...right.” Drakken shook himself. Then, more convincingly, he said, “You’re right. I  _ can _ make something like that!” A wide smile broke his face as he noted, “It could be a family bonding activity! Watching your memories!”

“Whoa now, easy there…” Shego leaned in and muttered not quiet enough, “ _ Some _ of those are just for us…”

“My god!” Gemini glared at the two villains from where he was hanging in the vines. “If you’re going to kill me, kill me! Don’t make me listen to any more of this drivel!”

“You’ll  _ listen _ as long as we want!” Drakken said, kicking Gemini in the side, but falling over in the process. “Ouch!”

Kim rolled her eyes at the same time Shego did.

“Okay, Doc, you proved your point…” Shego helped him up with a sigh. “Let’s turn this loser over to his sister and call it a day, eh? After all…” She gave a positively _ nasty _ smirk as she said, “It’s about time he learned his place as the younger sibling.”

Gemini  _ seethed _ .

“...what happened to his dog?” Kim asked. Pausing, she then called out, “Global Justice!”

Nothing.

“Oh, erm, yes… About the dog…” Drakken sputtered a little, both him and Shego looking both guilty and amused.

“...WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY DOG?!”

* * *

_ “Say ‘Ahhhh’!” Drew said, opening his mouth wide. _

_ Kimberly mimicked wordlessly. To her surprise, a spoonful of cereal found itself in her mouth. The baby sputtered a little, but still swallowed the mouthful of food. _

_ “Be careful with doing it like that!” Shego warned. “She might aspirate some of it!” _

_ “Well, aren’t  _ we _ just full of five-dollar words today?” her husband said, clicking his tongue. _

_ “As opposed to your fifty cent ones?” _

_ “Nnnnngh… Shego…!” He snorted. “You know I’m not good at English!” _

_ “Yeah, I noticed,” she deadpanned. _

_ “You’re so  _ frustrating _!” he said as Kimberly fell onto her stomach as he stopped supporting her in favor of putting his hands on his hips. “Oops!” _

_ Instead of crying, the baby laughed, lifting herself up on her hands. _

_ “Oh my god!” Drew gawked. “Shego, she’s lifting herself on her own!  _ She’s lifting herself _ -..” _

_ “I can see it myself, thanks.” The green woman knelt down and played with her baby’s hands. “Such a good girl, being able to do that allll by herself!” _

_ The baby giggled, smiling a wide toothless smile. _

_ “I think that was the best mistake I ever made!” Drew beamed. _

_ “Nah, the best mistake was trusting dear ol’ Mama Lipsky.” _

_ Drew tilted his eyebrow at her, confusion etched into every corner of his face. “What?” _

_ “Yeah…” Shego stretched out on the floor with their baby, who was now playing with locks of her mother’s hair. “Just think: If you hadn’t been so trusting, we wouldn’t have our dear little Kimmie here.” _

_ “...maybe…” Drew crossed his arms, a frown on his face. “But if you think I’m going to trust her at all wi-..” _

_ “ _ That’s _ going a little far,” Shego agreed. “I just meant that we owe that old bag more than we’d expected, y’know?” _

_ Her husband sat, thinking. “...yeah, I guess you’re right.” _

_ “Of course I am!” She smacked his shoulder. “I’m  _ always _ right!” _

_ “Oh really?” Drew murmured, tracing a pattern on Shego’s back. “Then tell me, what am I thinking now?” _

_ Shego smirked. “I think we’re thinking the same thing…” _

_ “Well then,” he said in the rumble that Shego loved so much, “let’s put Kimberly to bed and go fu-..” _

“Cutting it off there, folks,” Shego said from the back of the room. She detached herself from the machine Drakken had built to view her memories and strolled over to the couch in the Caribbean lair’s large room.

“Thank goodness!”

“Ron! That’s really rude!” Kim hissed, elbowing him lightly in the ribs.

“Ouch!”

“Ohhh trust me, Princess, you would be saying that too if you knew what happened next,” the green woman said with a saucy grin.

“TMI!” the redhead said, flinching away from Shego.

“ _ Now _ who’s being rude?” Drakken tsked. “I would expect better of you, Kimberly!”

“Drew’s right,” James admonished. “That was rather rude of you…”

“I didn’t mean it like that! Just, imagining my parents…” Kim got a weird look on her face and shuddered.

“Oh, Bubble-Butt,” Anne said, hugging her daughter’s side. “Don’t feel like that! Why, having a healthy sex life is essential to a good rela-..”

“That’s SO WRONGSICK!” Ron shouted, putting his hands over his ears.

“Ron, she’s doing it on purpose,” Kim said, giving her mom the evil eye.

“WHAT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU BECAUSE I’M COVERING MY EARS!”

Shego, Drakken, and Kim all rolled their eyes.

“James, can you do something about him? Like shoot him into a star or something?” Drakken asked plainly. “Because if you don’t, I’ll come up with something on my own.”

“I already gave Ronald the black hole speech,” James assured him.

Ron uncovered his ears. “What’s a ‘rack hold sitch’?

“It’s nothing, Ron,” Kim said, glaring at the other two men.

“Anyway…” Shego coughed a little and walked into another room.

“Where’s she going?” the younger redhead asked Drakken.

“Uhm, erm, gee, I don’t know…?” he said about as convincingly as Ron’s attempts to hide that he wasn’t the one to become a genius during the whole Phoebus project sitch.

“Uh-huh.” Kim decided to give her parents the benefit of the doubt and assume that they  _ weren’t _ trying to trick them into a take-over-the-world scheme.

Small steps.

A minute later, Shego came back in with cards in her hand. “Here. I figure since you’re already here…”

The green woman handed Ron, James, and Anne their own cards.

“Nothing for me?” Kim asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, that’s something I wanted to talk with you about…” Shego trailed off, looking almost nervous.

“Shego…” Anne looked up at the green woman. “These are…!”

“Yup.” Shego shrugged unconvincingly. “Figured since we’d already tied the knot…”

“What?” Kim looked over at the card Ron was holding.

“‘Andrew Theodore P Lipsky and Sheila Go request your presence…’” Kim looked up, surprised. “Wedding invites?”

“ _ Recommitment ceremony _ ,” Drakken corrected peevishly.

“Practically the same thing, Doc,” Shego chuckled. “Anyway, Kimmie, I was hoping to see…” She shifted on her feet, looking at her nails in disinterest. “If you’d wanna be my maid of honor. If you don’t want to, that’s fi-..”

Kim tackle-hugged her biological mother. “I’d love to!”

“Awww man! Why’s mine addressed ‘to the buffoon’?”

Kim rolled her eyes as Drakken and Shego shared a petty laugh.

They might not have solved everything, but they’d figured out enough. And things would work out fine… Eventually.


	10. Chapter 10

_ Agent Alpha sighed as he carried the baby into the base. This was starting to become truly sick… Doing this to a family...  
_

_ He was no stranger to hero/villain relations. Alpha was a ten-year veteran of fighting against do-gooders. It was part of how he secured his current position. He’d heard that this Gemini guy, a noobie to the playing field, was a crazy one. _

_ But this? He had never thought in a million years that he’d be involved with something this grotesque. _

_ It was clear to Alpha that this poor man had no idea about the utopia project. But his boss, ever the paranoid motherfucker, kept pressing him. Even after extracting all of his memories about GJ he was screaming mad on trying to get the information he wanted. Convinced his sister, another new person who’d been recruited by GJ, somehow sealed the memories in his head. _

_ Which was why they now had his family. _

_ Alpha had  _ no idea _ how it would help. They’d also extracted the memories of being in college, just in case he’d been recruited by GJ in secret and the original memory was a cover. This chump had no idea who this woman even was! _

_ She didn’t stick around long at least. A few shots of the brain-tap machine and she had no idea what was going on either. She was wily, though, and managed to break out with just herself. Didn’t even bother going for the baby, if she even knew about her. _

_ After that, Gemini finally,  _ finally _ believed the poor man. Gave up on extracting any information from him on Project Utopia. _

_ But that didn’t end the man’s suffering. _

_ No, instead, Gemini decided to use him as a test subject. It wasn’t a bad idea, really. Basic average guy, why not see what would happen if you pump him full of whatever mutagen they could find? _

_ Except… _

_ The baby. _

_ Something had to be done about the baby. _

_ His boss had demanded the child be disposed of, like some piece of garbage. Alpha was floored by the command. That was truly monstrous, wanting to kill some poor baby for getting stuck in the middle of some sibling feud. _

_ Alpha wasn’t having any of it. _

_ The next night saw him sneaking the baby, still wrapped in her blanket, out of the facility. He made one pit stop: to the man’s cell. Maybe, hopefully, even with his mind awash with chemicals and pain he would have at least half a mind on who he wanted to take care of his baby. _

_ “Where did you want this kid to go?” Alpha asked, listening closely. “Where would she be safe?” _

_ “Possible. Decent guy. Possible…” The man was muttering gibberish now, but Alpha got the message. _

* * *

_ A few weeks after he’d dropped the baby off at the Possible residence - really easy to find, not many people named Possible - it seemed to be the man’s turn to be tossed out into the scrap heap. _

_ Alpha searched the clothes he’d been brought in with, looking for some kind of clue as to where this man’s home was. There was no way that their previous address was anything viable anymore, being a small college apartment where he’d been missing for months. The turnover was much too high. And Alpha, even being as soft-hearted as he was, wasn’t about to waste a lot of time helping this guy. _

_ The man had a number in his wallet, labeled ‘Mother’. He was glad for it… The only problem was that he had no idea which Lipsky his mother was. _

_...they’d found him and his family in Lowerton. They must live somewhere around there. _

_ So Alpha called up the old broad. Told her her son was in bad shape and needed help. Then, carefully so as to not be caught, he snuck the man out of the base to a back alley in lower Lowerton. Stuck him behind a dumpster, where he would at least be safe from the casual eye. It was raining, a small bane, but what was a little rain to a guy that’d been through what this guy had gone through? Even decided to leave a piece of his uniform with the guy, in case he wanted some revenge later. The guy seemed the type to carry a grudge like that. _

_ After that, Alpha got the heck outta Dodge. Went back to his hometown, planned on just settling down. If the new generation of villains were as crazy as this guy, he wanted no more part of it. _

_ It was a moot effort. _

_ Just a few short days later, Gemini showed up at his home. Demanded Alpha explain himself. Alpha tried to sidestep it by saying he was taking vacation per his contract, but Gemini was having no part of it. Said contracts are for chumps, and that Alpha was clearly colluding with his sister due to the missing patch on his uniform. Then he went on a spiel about how he needed disposal holes for fools like him that failed or betrayed him, and how he needed to be careful picking his next Agent Alpha. _

_ Nutter. Entirely 100 percent a nutter. _

_ Alpha didn’t bother protesting. He knew it wouldn’t do any good. His fate was sealed. _

_ As expected, Gemini shot him clean through with a laser. _

_ Even as he fell, Alpha couldn’t help but feel like it had been worth it. _


	11. Bonus Chapter

Gemini growled as he made his way through the Global Justice air ducts. It was absolutely humiliating, having to escape by himself with no help from any of his men. His organization was in  _ shambles _ . He knew because Betty, who was  _ definitely _ his younger sibling by 4 minutes with absolutely no room for her ever being his older sister at all, gloated to him as he sat in his cell, missing his mechanical arm. He was lucky that he had his arm set to let him know where it was. Now he knew where his sister’s precious evidence lock-up was!

Luckily for him, as solid as his organization was, Global Justice was equally terrible.

Oh, it had its bright spots here and there. But where his sister didn’t have her grimy fingers was where it fell apart. He was certain that he’d lucked out again, as it didn’t seem that the cameras were working quite right in this particular section of the ductwork.

As he exited the ducts, having spider climbed part of the way to avoid the obvious weight-based sensors, he took the evidence locker all in.

It would take  _ years _ to build all of his resources back up, if he could even manage it. Even if he took everything here, it would be a fraction of the manpower that he needed. And good luck getting Hench to fund him. He’d burned that part of the HenchCo bridge due to all of the henches he went through. But would it have mattered? Those henches proved to be as incompetent as any others!

...this was all  _ their _ fault.

Dr Drakken, Shego, Kim Possible… Those three were all involved in the destruction of his base, his men, his reputation. Their discussion all but proved it! It was all  _ their _ fault that he was reduced to this! They colluded together to do this to him!

And Pepe…

It was decided. Forget his sister. She was  _ small potatoes _ compared to those three.

No matter what it took, he would make them suffer as much as he was now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all, folks! May or may not write a sequel, depends on what I can come up with.


End file.
